On Friday (26), US President Joe Biden invited 40 world leaders to attend the climate leaders’ summit in April. Among them, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
According to White House information, Biden asked the leaders to use the meeting as “an opportunity to explain how their countries can contribute to stronger climate ambition.”
Since the Democrat’s inauguration on Jan.20, government aides in Brazil and the United States have spoken about the environmental agenda, which Biden has placed at the center of his government, while Bolsonaro has generally taken a negligent stance on the issue.
Despite the antagonism of the two presidents in this area and in others, Planalto collaborators had already signaled to the White House that Bolsonaro would participate in the meeting and expected the formalization of the invitation, which arrived this Friday.
Bolsonaro criticizes NGOs working to preserve the Amazon, promotes deregulation of environmental standards and is seen abroad as a leader without commitment for environmental protection.
Biden, for his part, has pledged to eliminate carbon emissions from the power sector in the United States by 2035 and has already dealt with deforestation in the Amazon on several occasions, but the initial White House order is to do so. to do, initially, with dialogue and partnerships, and not with sanctions against Brazil.
As Folha has shown, the Bolsonaro government has asked the United States for help in meeting new clean energy goals – an area in which Brazil has historically stood out – and perhaps it is one of the main points that led to the summit debate in April. on the Brazilian side.
At the meeting, to be held virtually April 22-23, the United States plans to announce a new carbon emissions target for 2030 as part of its return to the signed Paris Climate Agreement. by Biden on his first day in government.
Regarded as a climate czar in the White House, Special Advisor John Kerry has already met Brazilian Minister of the Environment Ricardo Salles and has publicly called on nations to commit to more objective and ambitious figures on climate change. , treated by him as a security issue.
Guests at the April summit include leaders from 17 countries who, along with the United States, are part of the Big Savings Forum on Energy and Climate, responsible for around 80% of global carbon emissions.
“President [Biden] he also invited leaders from other countries that have shown strong leadership in the climate field, are particularly vulnerable to climate impacts or are charting innovative paths towards a zero emission economy, ”says the White House.
Besides Bolsonaro, Presidents Xi Jinping (China), Vladimir Poutine (Russia), Ursula von der Leyen (European Commission, executive branch of the European Union), Emmanuel Macron (France), Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico), Alberto Fernández (Argentina), Sebastián Piñera (Chile), Iván Duque Márquez (Colombia), and Prime Ministers Angela Merkel (Germany), Boris Johnson (United Kingdom), Narendra Modi (India), Binyamin Netanyahu (Israel), among others.
Biden wants to show that the United States is back in world leadership after four years of Donald Trump’s isolationism, even in a region where Americans are one of the world’s biggest pollutants – behind only China.
The US president sees the April meeting as a preparatory path for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, scheduled for November in Glasgow.
The summit effort is to catalyze the joint work of countries to curb global warming to a limit of 1.5 ° C.
Biden wants to mobilize public and private funding to stimulate countries’ energy transition and help vulnerable countries cope with climate impacts.