A group of nations with a millennial track record of safeguarding their tropical forests is now urging industrialized countries to go beyond mere promises and take concrete action. This is the idea that they wanted to convey during the last Amazon Summit.
To go beyond mere promises is to demand that they put more money on the table. That is what the Brazilian president has communicated Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by veiledly attacking the European Union accusing it of adopting protectionist measures disguised as environmental concern.
Lula blamed the most developed nations exclusively for the degradation of tropical forests and demands that they contribute financially to conservation efforts. The last 200 years of industrial development are to blame for the deforestation of the amazon -among other forests- for the Brazilian president.
Not a trace of criticism of the rulers of the region who are the ones who have allowed these resources to be extracted for the benefit of foreign companies.
This last confrontation has its origin in the latest European environmental regulations that prohibit the importation of deforested regions. This should be cause for celebration for environmentalists as it is a boycott, if you will, of companies that profit from the mistreatment of nature.
Far from being a positive thing for the leaders of South America Commanded by Lula, they have launched to demand financial reparations. Because? Because the EU would thus reduce the importation of certain products from this area of the planet. Lula defines it as «green neocolonialism».
And that is where the main stumbling block lies: the economic one. This game of interests has strained the relationship between mercosur and the EUwhich poses a major challenge to the ratification of the treaty signed in 2019. The world situation is delicate and the Mercosur countries want to get the biggest slice possible.
More than environmentalism
Brazil He has held the rotating presidency of Mercosur since July 4 and the nation has great interest in amplifying his voice by taking advantage of the Spanish leadership in the European Union until December.
The last EU-CELAC summit -also from July of this year- served to learn about the close relationship between certain forces on both continents. And that harmony between the left of all kinds is what Lula wants to exploit to get the most benefit possible with the environmental excuse.
In politics it is important to understand time and frame, and in these two fields the left is a master. After having used the summit in Brussels to launder governments such as the Cuban or Venezuelan, the members of the Sao Paulo forum led by Lula have not taken even a month to attack the European Union.
The Amazon Summit that took place in the city of belem must be understood as a test of the COP 30annual climate conference United Nationswhich will also be held in this Brazilian city in 2025.
