The 29th edition of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP), which began on Monday (11) in Baku, Azerbaijan, is likely to be one of the hardest ever. This is because it is taking place while there are ongoing wars, a breakdown of trust and the election of Donald Trump in the United States. However, it is also an opportunity for Brazil to position itself as a global leader in actions to mitigate climate change.
This is the assessment of the executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, Márcio Astrini. “Brazil has to fill this vacuum now – this gap left by those who are leaving – and take the lead. Not only Brazil, but other countries too. The COP is knocking on our door, and so is the call for new global leadership. Brazil needs to take that place,” he said.
According to him, the country has made significant progress in meeting its mitigation targets since the recent presidential victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party), with the possibility of meeting them by 2025, something few countries will achieve. However, the time has come to present more robust proposals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“These good figures are not enough for Brazil to lead the negotiating agenda, which is where we want to see Brazil in 2025, at the conference here [COP30 will be held in the city of Belém]. One thing is to do your homework, and another thing is to set an example and push the global agenda,” he argues. “The global agenda isn’t a domestic task. That's the principle of everything. If you don't do it even at home, then there's no point in wanting to be the world's negotiating leader. Now, Brazil needs to take the next step, which is to put itself forward as a leader by having an aggressive proposal for reducing greenhouse gases.”
The executive secretary of the Climate Observatory points out, however, that COP29 is likely to be a difficult space for negotiations. Among the problems are wars and the absence of world leaders due to these conflicts. Another issue is the breakdown of trust, especially regarding the financing of climate change mitigation actions.
“This year’s COP is already starting in a very stressful context, because the topic being debated has been dragging on for more than a decade, which has no solution: the issue of financing. That’s about who puts the money on the table to do what needs to be done. This has been the source of disagreement among countries for a long time, particularly the rich countries, who promised to set up an international fund with 100 billion dollars a year. Nobody has ever seen this money. They did a kind of creative ing to show where the money came from – money that never existed,” criticizes Astrini.
“And then Trump arrives to worsen what was already a bad situation. He's a denier. I mean, it's not just a problem for the environmental agenda, obviously. Several agendas will suffer under Trump. But for the environmental agenda, he already has negative achievements from his first presidential term. I mean, he pulled out of the Paris Agreement. It should further disrupt this scenario, which was already very difficult,” he adds.
