This Amazon Collaboration Agreement Organization (OTCA) Belém do Pará, in northeastern Brazil, concludes the two-day summit this Wednesday with a 21-page document outlining possible consensus among the eight member states. theme fossil fuels, A clear dividing line between Brazilian and Colombian presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Gustavo Petro was only sidelined in a statement that sparked disagreement among environmental groups.
Discussed between Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Guyana, and Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador and Suriname, the content of the text left mixed feelings. However, the organization made a more general commitment. avoiding an irreversible process of desertification on Amazon. According to the São Paulo newspaper ‘Folha’, the term “zero deforestation” – particularly championed by Brazil and Colombia – was included in the document “as an example of a national target”, not the entire OCTA. It’s a clear concession to members with less ambitious goals or looser legislation, such as Bolivia and Peru.
It was decided to create scientific technical panel For the Amazon, inspired by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and a regional observatory. States will lay the groundwork for police cooperation in combating criminal and illegal activities, including mining, mercury smuggling and money laundering. Peter suggested a more ambitious goal: create a court of environmental justice.
The document approves territorial rights of indigenous communitiesThey are the same people consulted on projects that already affect their land. The agreement also provides for cooperation to tackle gender-based violence, misogyny and racism.
Message to EU
ACTO condemns its “spread” unilateral trade measures Based on environmental requirements and standards, which have turned into trade barriers and mainly affecting small producers in developing countries”. For analysts, the message was sent to the EU. Also the richest countries of the planet that they have fulfilled their promise to allocate $100,000 million Brazilian diplomacy to the climate agenda of developing countries has particularly bolstered these paragraphs, taking an interest in linking issues that sometimes seem separate. In the opening session, Lula himself stated in this sense:a just ecological transition“It should allow this region to stop having a “secondary” place as “suppliers of raw materials. The host president is Amazon in this context” our passport to a new relationship with the worlda more symmetrical relationship where our resources are not used for the benefit of the few, but are valued and made available to all”.
The Belém do Pará declaration announces the ACTO’s willingness to coordinate its positions on international agendas such as COP28. Although the principles of the Paris Agreement are accepted, there is no specific reference to oil in the document. The Declaration only encourages “actors in the life cycle of minerals and hydrocarbons” to adapt to the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
Environmentalists’ disappointment
Various NGOs and experts, who closely followed the meeting in the northeast of Brazil, expressed their dissatisfaction with ACTO’s message to the world. Text for the Climate Observatory “repeats the fate of other multilateral declarations and lowers commitments”. By doing this in the context of a climate emergency, it is failing the forest and the planet.” According to Leandro Ramos, Greenpeace Brazil“The declaration is disappointing in several respects, but mainly because it does not contain clear and concrete commitments.”
“In such a scenario, eight Amazon countries fail to file a black-on-white declaration, deforestation is zero, and it’s not a good idea to look for oil in the middle of the forest‘Folha’ said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network of around 80 Brazilian nonprofits. “The right issues have been addressed, but A series of actions were not presented in the short and medium term that society, the private sector and the academic world expected. “It could change the course we sail today,” said Marcelo Furtado, director of Nature Finance.
Mixed opinions of Petro and Lula
The summit staged the differentiation of criteria between Petro and Lula on oil. The first to speakclimate denial“From the left. “Is it possible to maintain this level of political line? WhatBet on death and destroy life? Or should we propose something different, what I call a decarbonized society?” Jean Paul Prates, head of state-owned Petrobras, seemed to be speaking for Lula. The fact that the COP (in 2025) will be here means that the use of oil still finances the energy transition that will take several decades. is to discuss how it can help