- The Observer
6 25.08.19 News
G7 summit
Many blamed Bolsonaro’s plans to
develop the Amazon forest and allow
mining and commercial agriculture
on protected indigenous reserves
for the fi res. These happen each dry
Amazon winter but have soared this
year as farmers and loggers, embold-
ened by Bolsonaro’s anti-environ-
ment rhetoric, have torched felled
trees and cleared land for pasture.
According to official data from
Brazil’s space research institute INPE ,
August has already seen 25,000 fi res
in the Amazon biome – the most since
2010, when it was hit by a drought.
Scientists brushed aside Bolsonaro’s
suggestion that the fires this year
were of average level.
“It’s just plain manipulation,” said
Alexandre Costa , a professor of phys-
ics and climate science specialist at
the university of Ceará. “They are try-Boris Johnson,
Angela Merkel,
Emmanuel
Macron,
Giuseppe Conte
and Donald
Tusk in Biarritz.
ReutersMacron: ‘All G7 powers
must help Brazil fi ght
raging Amazon fi res’
French president talks
up trade sanctions as
world leaders convene
and thousands of
Brazilians join marches
against Bolsonaro
Emmanuel Macron has asked for
world powers to help Brazil and its
neighbours fi ght the fi res raging in
the Amazon and to plan huge replant-
ing programmes. The appeal came
as the French president piled pres-
sure on Brazil’s far-right leader Jair
Bolsonaro , who has been accused of
fuelling the burning of the rainforest.
As environmental protesters
marched nearby, the G7 summit’s,
opening meeting was dominated
by the spectre of economic reper-
cussions for Brazil and its South
American neighbours and showed
how the Amazon is becoming a bat-
tleground between Bolsonaro and
the west. Many governments have
become alarmed that vast swathes of
the Amazon are going up in smoke,
affecting biodiversity and worsening
the climate crisis.
Macron wants to bring other
leaders onside to his hard line with
Bolsonaro. The Brazilian president
suggested, after talking to Donald
Trump on Friday, that some countries
would press Brazil’s case at the G7 in
the face of criticism from France.
Paris and Dublin have threatened
to block the Mercosur free-trade
agreement between the EU and South
American nations if Brazil does not
act to slow the deforestation of the
Amazon. In Biarritz, EU council presi-
dent Donald Tusk increased that pres-
sure yesterday. He said that although
the EU stands by the free-trade agree-
ment with South American nations, “it
is hard to imagine a harmonious pro-
cess of ratifi cation by the European
countries as long as the Brazilian gov-
ernment allows for the destruction of
the green lungs of planet earth”.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson
underlined his concern as he arrived
in Biarritz but he said he would not
let it affect trade ties with Brazil. “I
am horrifi ed by what is happening in
the Amazon basin, and as I said yes-
terday the UK stands ready to help in
any way that we can to extinguish the
fi res, and to protect habitat and bio-
diversity ,” said Johnson. However, he
said he would not be willing to follow
the example of France and Ireland in
refusing to ratify the EU’s trade deal
with Mercosur.
“I think I would be reluctant to do
anything at this very diffi cult time for
global free trade, to cancel another
trade deal,” Johnson said.
Asked whether Macron was mak-
ing a mistake linking the deal to the
environment, he added: “I think we
need to look at the commercial think-
ing that may underlie that.”
UK trade minister Conor Burns,
a longtime ally of Johnson’s, toured
Brazil on a trade mission this week,
leading the Labour party to accuse the
UK government of “cosying up” to the
Bolsanaro regime.As fi res burned across the Amazon,
a worsening domestic crisis raged
around Bolsonaro. In Brazil, protest-
ers took to the streets of major cities
and gathered outside Brazilian diplo-
matic missions abroad. In São Pa ulo ,
demonstrators called for the resigna-
tion of environment minister Ricardo
Salles and railed against Bolsonaro
and the powerful agribusiness sec-
tor which supports him. One placard
read: “Boycott Brazilian meat.”
“It is very good that this is happen-
ing, we needed something to move
people,” said Felipe Campos, 34, a
branding consultant who took his
seven-year-old godson to the dem-
onstration. Brazilians often take to
the street but rarely over environ-
mental issues.
In Rio de Janeiro, 2,000 people
crowded the steps of the town hall.‘I’m horrifi ed by what
is happening in the
Amazon basin – the
UK is ready to help’
Boris Johnson
Angelique Chrisafi s &
Heather Stewart Biarritz
& Dom Phillips Rio de JaneiroClimate crisis