On 5 June Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his environment minister, Marina Silva, announced a series of measures destined to strengthen the country’s green agenda and sustainability efforts.
Analysis:
Marking World Environment Day, the announced measures seek to burnish the Lula government’s green credentials after a series of recent setbacks in the area. Indeed, last week Brazil’s congress approved a decree stripping Silva’s ministry of key attributes while the chamber of deputies moved forward with legislation threatening indigenous lands, which are proven to be a bulwark against deforestation.
- Lula signed off on eight decrees yesterday which, among other things, create new protected areas and establish a number of bodies responsible for different aspects of the climate agenda, from the reduction of greenhouse gases emitted by deforestation to the hosting of the COP30 climate conference in 2025 in the Amazonian city of Belém.
- The president pledged to update Brazil’s nationally determined contributions (NDCs), a commitment initially made under the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change but which was weakened by revisions under the Jair Bolsonaro government (2019-2023).
- Announcements also included a plan for the security and sovereignty of the Amazon, which aims to reinforce public security infrastructure in the rainforest region to combat illegal activities on protected lands such as land grabbing, mining, fishing and poaching, and logging.
- Lula and Silva both paid tribute to Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, the Brazilian indigenous expert and British journalist who were murdered a year ago in the Amazon. Five men involved in illegal fishing have been charged in relation to the crime. “The best way of honouring them is to guarantee that their fight will not have been in vain,” Lula said.
- In his speech Lula stressed that economic development is not at odds with environmental conservation, while also throwing a jab at developed countries for having failed to stick to their promises of funding less wealthy nations’ environmental efforts.
Looking Ahead: Lula’s wholehearted commitment to making Brazil “once again a global reference on sustainability and fighting climate change” comes as the president’s dedication to his ambitious green agenda has been in doubt, notably following disagreements with Silva over an oil exploration project near the mouth of the Amazon River. Wary observers will be looking for actions to follow words.
