Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this Monday in Brasilia. DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)
Germany will allocate 203 million euros ($220 million) to environmental protection projects in Brazil, mainly aimed at curbing deforestation in the Amazon. The announcement was made during the visit to Brasilia by Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz, who, in a joint appearance with President Lula da Silva, congratulated himself on the new stage that is being opened in Brazil. “It’s good news for the planet that Lula is committed to fighting climate change and tropical forest destruction,” he said, noting that without protecting forests in Brazil and Latin America in general, it will be impossible to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
A large part of the German funds flows into the so-called Amazon Fund, an instrument created by the Brazilian government in 2009 to receive funds from international donations. Germany and Norway are the main contributors, and by 2018 the fund had deployed more than 1,000 million reais (180 million euros, 195 million dollars) across 103 projects. One of the Brazilian state banks is responsible for approving and managing the resources. With the rise to power of former President Jair Bolsonaro and his anti-environmental speech, the fund was frozen. Lula reactivated it by signing a decree on January 1, the day of his inauguration. Both Germany and Norway quickly announced that they would resume donations.
Before the meeting between Lula and Scholz, Environment Minister Marina Silva met with Federal Minister for Cooperation Svenja Schulze, with whom she explained the use of these funds. A good portion is used for emergency tasks to solve the humanitarian crisis experienced by the Yanomami indigenous people on the Brazil-Venezuela border. Long besieged by illegal mining that pollutes the rivers of their territory with mercury, dozens of these indigenous people (including many children) have been rescued from extreme malnutrition, malaria and respiratory infections in recent days.
Germany itself is providing 35 million euros for the Amazon fund, but the remaining funds also flow into projects to protect the Amazon. The highest subsidy, for example, is 80 million euros and is used to carry out loans to farmers for reforestation of degraded areas. Lula thanked for the donation and reiterated Brazil’s commitment to fighting illegal deforestation.
But the meeting between Scholz and Lula (the first official visit by a foreign head of state in his recent mandate), with the environment as a protagonist on the agenda, allowed for more. The two discussed the war between Russia and Ukraine, and Lula reiterated his refusal to send ammunition despite pressure. “Brazil has no interest in sending ammunition to be used between Russia and Ukraine, Brazil is a country of peace (…) Brazil does not want to be involved, even indirectly, because I think that at this moment in the world should look for someone who can help find peace between Russia and Ukraine,” he said at the joint press conference.
Lula regretted that little was said about peace and advocated promoting some sort of club of countries committed to ending the war. He named China, India and Indonesia, but particularly emphasized the Asian giant: “Our Chinese friends play a very important role. It’s time for (China) to put its hands in the dough and help find peace between Russia and Ukraine,” he said, adding that he will try to meet Xi Jinping on his next visit to Beijing Month of May to convince March.
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The EU-Mercosur agreement, which was approved in 2019 but has since yet to be ratified, was another focus of the bilateral meeting. Lula recalled that in the past both Brazil and Argentina had resisted for fear of reindustrialization. Now that’s changed, with Lula pledging to work hard to get the green light in the first half of this year, a fairly optimistic deadline that surprised Scholz himself. Nevertheless, Lula made it clear that he wanted to review the text: “It doesn’t work the way it is, something has to be changed,” he said, referring, for example, to the chapter on government procurement, which he considered essential for the sustainability of the small ones and medium-sized companies in Brazil. Lula also spoke of reviewing the terms of Brazil’s OECD accession process because Brazil “cannot be a junior partner” and asked Germany for help in reforming the World Trade Organization and the UN to make the old demand that the two countries have one permanent seat on the Security Council.
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