Opinion: Why does Brazil sell itself so cheap?

By Alexander Busch

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – (Opinion) Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles supposedly thought he was very clever when he announced that he intends to demand “US$1 billion” at the Earth Day summit on April 22. In exchange, Brazil would deforest 40% less Amazon forest than it currently does. By this he means: if the gringos are demanding that we preserve the Amazon, then they will have to pay.

Salles is sure of the applause of those who support his “environmental policy.” In his office, President Jair Bolsonaro and some generals would have congratulated him for the “David versus Goliath” demonstration. Not least because a large part of the money would go to the military and police units that sometimes protect the rainforest.

As he declared, the minister considers the existing environmental agencies, such as Ibama and ICMBio, too bureaucratic and smothered by rules.

The problem is that, for US$1 billion, Brazil will be selling itself cheaper than ever before at an environmental summit. The amount is a trifle compared to what the Amazon Forest and its preservation could be worth. Unthinking and stingy, the idea shows all the misery of the current environmental policy of the country.

On the way to COP26

President Bolsonaro appointed Salles as chief negotiator for the so-called Leaders’ Climate Summit, relegating to the background all cabinet members who would have something to say on the subject. And there is a lot at stake: The new American president Joe Biden, has invited 40 heads of state and government to the meeting.

This is a preparatory meeting for the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November. The United States wants to obtain commitments from the big emitters of greenhouse gases about their CO2 emissions right away. Then, at the conference in Scotland, it would finally be possible to improve the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

And now, with his billion-dollar demand, Salles wants the world community to pay Brazil in advance for the existing forest, that is, for the carbon dioxide captured.

Through the Amazon Fund, created by Norway and also Germany to protect the forest, money would flow annually, but only if Brazil demonstrably reduces deforestation. Since the Bolsonaro government can’t or won’t do this, the transfers have been suspended.

Claiming instead of passing the buck

And yet the “cash for forest protection” system could work well: Several states, private conglomerates, and multilateral donors such as the World Bank would surely be willing to invest a lot to support Brazil.

The country would just have to prove, or reliably assure, that it can and wants to preserve the Amazon Rainforest. Instead, the current government is dismantling all institutions and cutting funds, so that the destruction of the Amazon gets faster and faster.

Asking for US$1 billion is like the Minister of the Environment wanting the fire department to tip him on how to put out a fire in his own house. The government is trying to profit from preventing its own catastrophe: “The government’s environmental strategy is mistaken, short-sighted, and short termed,” criticized ex-Minister of Agriculture Pedro de Camargo Neto.

Because, with its sustainable energy matrix, of hydroelectric and biofuels, Brazil could present itself in a very different way on Earth Day, imposing conditions, not as a requester. The country should demand that the states producing the most greenhouse gases – the European Union, China, Russia, and India – reduce their emissions.

Camargo Neto points the way: “We, who may suffer the disaster they are causing and may pay the penalty. We would have to be in a position of strength, pushing, not wanting to pass the tin cup.”

For more than 25 years, journalist Alexander Busch has been South America correspondent for the German Handelsblatt publishing group (which publishes the weekly Wirtschaftswoche and the daily Handelsblatt) and the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper. Born in 1963, he grew up in Venezuela and studied economics and politics in Cologne and Buenos Aires. Busch lives and works in São Paulo and Salvador. He is the author of several books about Brazil.