Many foreign observers were rooting for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the presidential election against far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
For some foreign investors, Lula is a more predictable politician. But the main issue that made people skeptical of Bolsonaro is the climate. For nearly four years, Bolsonaro has consistently chipped away at Brazil’s environmental policies and ability to curb deforestation.
In European and North American newspapers, journalists described the presidential election as a vote on the future of the planet. Many feared that, should Bolsonaro win, Amazon deforestation would continue until the rainforest was destroyed beyond recovery.
This week, as the UN Climate Conference COP27 kicks off, we will discuss the environmental legacy of Jair Bolsonaro.
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Guest:
- Ana Paula Prates is a public policy director at the Talanoa Institute, a think tank. She holds a Ph.D. in marine ecology from the University of Brasília and worked as an analyst at the Environment Ministry.
This episode used music from Uppbeat. License codes: FWOIFSYKZXBBOJQU, PKSNKU6YVB4R1GCK, H7LRCMBELYL519NF
Background reading:
- Deforestation in the Amazon spiraled out of control during Jair Bolsonaro’s time as president. InfoAmazonia and PlenaMata have illustrated the destruction using satellite imagery.
- Lula’s environmental commitments were miles ahead of those of his electoral rivals — but that is largely down to former Environment Minister Marina Silva, whose proposals have given a green boost to the former president’s manifesto.
- As COP27 begins, a Brazilian institute warns: the planet has “nowhere to run.”
- In a political defeat for the Jair Bolsonaro administration, the House Constitution and Justice Committee approved a constitutional amendment proposal in October defining climate security as a constitutional right. The bill still has a long way to go in Congress.
- A new illegal road seeks to link two Brazilian deforestation hotspots and would cut the Xingu Socio-Environmental Corridor in two, reports Euan Marshall.
- A presidential decree on carbon market regulations fails to establish mandatory goals for carbon emission cuts, and could create legal uncertainty around the issue, endangering the environment.
- The Bolsonaro government has issued a decree pushing back carbon credit targets for fuel distributors, and causing discontent in the biofuels sector.
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