Foreign
BRAZIL will decide how to spend 20 million dollars pledged by the G7 countries to support urgent fire fighting efforts in the Amazon rain forest, the country’s environment minister has said.
“The Brazilian people and the Brazilian government will decide how the funds will be used.
“In any case, help is always welcome,” Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said in Sao Paulo.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the funding on Monday at a meeting at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France.
The allies will also back a broader initiative for the Amazon region to be presented at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
But the initiative has provoked an angry response from Brazil.
President Jair Bolsonaro, whose laissez-faire position on climate change has caused concern internationally, responded to the news of the G7 support by warning foreign powers against interfering in his country’s internal affairs.
“We cannot accept that a president, Macron, unleashes unreasonable and gratuitous attacks on the Amazon, nor that he disguises his intentions behind the idea of a G-7 ‘alliance’ to ‘save’ the Amazon, as if we were a colony or a no-man’s-land,” Bolsonaro tweeted.
Bolsonaro stressed a regional solution instead, adding that he had spoken to Colombian President Ivan Duque “about the need to have a joint plan between the majority of the countries that make up the Amazon to guarantee our sovereignty and natural wealth.”
A recent spate of Amazon fires follows moves by the Brazilian government to open more of the rainforest to mining and agriculture, with satellite data indicating that the pace of deforestation is increasing rapidly.
NAN
_AUG 27, 2019 @08:40 GMT |
Tags: Brazil to decide how Amazon funds are spent says minister
