Leaders of the world’s major democracies are due to hold emergency talks this weekend on the wildfires engulfing the Amazon, as international efforts to force Brazil to change its deforestation policies gathered momentum, reports The Guardian.
As heads of state and government were due to arrive at the G7 in Biarritz on Saturday, France and Ireland threatened to block the Mercosur free-trade agreement between the EU and South American nations if the government of Jair Bolsonaro does not stop the deforestation of the Amazon, which experts say has fuelled the fires. Other EU members were under pressure to walk away from the Mercosur (Southern Common Market) deal, which is already unpopular among European farmers.
The Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, who was first to call the Mercosur deal into question on Friday, said Bolsonaro’s attempt to blame the fires on environmental groups was “Orwellian”.
The Finnish government, which currently chairs the EU, called on member states to consider more trade restrictions. The country’s finance minister, Mika Lintila, said he “condemns the destruction of the Amazon and calls for Finland and the EU to urgently look into the possibility of banning Brazilian beef imports”.
Boris Johnson, who will be attending the G7 summit for the first time as prime minister, has said he was “deeply concerned” by the Amazon conflagration, but was under pressure from Jeremy Corbyn to support punitive measures against Bolsonaro, who the Labour leader said “has allowed and indeed encouraged these fires to take place”.
The public backlash also escalated on Friday. In Brazil, protests against the government’s environmental policies were planned in 40 cities on Friday, and there were demonstrations outside Brazilian embassies and consulates in several European capitals.
“This country made a Herculean effort to reduce deforestation in the Amazon and now we are seeing everything being taken apart,” tweeted Brazil’s former environment minster Marina Silva. “Brazil had stopped being a villain and it is now going back to being a pariah. We must stop this insanity,” he added.
France accused Bolsonaro of lying to its president, Emmanuel Macron, about his commitments on combating the climate emergency, and so the country would no longer support the Mercosur deal with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. The deal has taken two decades to negotiate but has yet to be ratified.
Macron said the wildfires constituted an international crisis and vowed to push the issue to the top of the agenda at the G7 summit, which begins on Saturday night in Biarritz. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, supported the decision.