Lula and Macron launch investment plan worth R$5.3 billion – 03/26/2024 – Environment

Meeting in Belém this Tuesday (26), the presidents of France, Emmanuel Macron, and Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), announced an investment plan in bioeconomy for the Amazon.

The initiative aims to leverage 1 billion euros (around R$5.3 billion) in public and private resources over the next four years. The amount must be aimed at both the Amazon forest in Brazilian territory and that which is in French Guiana (territory of the European country).

The program foresees, among other actions, a technical and financial partnership between Brazilian public banks, including Banco da Amazônia and BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), and the French Development Agency.

The plan also includes the provision of collaboration in the scientific area, with the creation of a center for research, investment and sharing of technologies, through a new scientific agreement between the two countries. This project must be operated by Embrapa and Cirad (French research center for agriculture).

The presidents also announced a coalition to ask that carbon credit markets respect high standards, working to combat so-called “greenwashing” and the establishment of an international regulated market.

This is Macron’s first visit to Latin America. The Frenchman landed at the Belém air base around 4pm and headed to Estação das Docas, a famous tourist spot, where he met Lula. Public access to both locations was closed.

Macron arrived in the country for a three-day visit, after passing through French Guiana. He will stay for a few hours in the capital of Pará, where, with Lula, he visited the island of Combu, one of the largest in the city.

There he visited a sustainable chocolate factory and awarded the title of knight of the French Legion of Honor to chief Raoni Metuktire, leader of the Kayapós who is a reference in the fight for the rights of indigenous peoples and defender of the environment.

The delegation included the ministers of the Environment, Marina Silva, and of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, as well as the governor of Pará, Helder Barbalho.

After visiting Combu, the heads of state head to Rio de Janeiro.

During the journey, the vessel with the presidential delegation passed through a protest by the NGO Greenpeace Brasil, which hung a banner with the words “No oil in the Amazon” on a research sailboat moored near the island.

The Greenpeace sailboat Witness docked in Belém after a month-long expedition along the coast of Pará and Amapá to study the sea currents in the region. The area is at the center of discussions about oil exploration in the Foz do Amazonas basin by Petrobras.

The objective of the research, according to the NGO, is to understand the behavior of surface currents and assess the potential impact that oil contamination could generate.

According to Greenpeace, preliminary results of studies carried out by researchers from the Institute of Scientific and Technological Research of the State of Amapá on board the sailboat indicate that, in addition to the coast of Amapá, French Guiana and other neighboring countries, such as Suriname and Guyana, could be impacted by potential oil spills at Foz do Amazonas.

Documents from the licensing process for oil exploration in the Foz do Amazonas basin have already highlighted the possibility of oil impact on the coast of eight countries, in addition to two territories in France (French Guiana and Martinique), in the event of spills.

The French president’s arrival in Belém involved a reinforced security scheme, coordinated by the Navy. Due to the terrorist attack that occurred in Moscow last Friday (22), France is on high alert.

Furthermore, during the morning and early afternoon, traffic in the capital of Pará was intense due to a demonstration by city hall employees who interrupted the flow of vehicles on one of the main roads, Avenida Almirante Barroso. Concentrated in front of the Belém Municipal Administration Secretariat, the employees asked for better working conditions.

The objective of the visit to Brazil, according to the French government, is for the two presidents to discuss issues of biodiversity protection, ecological transition and decarbonization of economies.

This year, Brazil will host the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, and in 2025 COP30. The UN climate summit is scheduled to take place in Belém, but, as the Sheet showed last week, the government is considering transferring part of the events to cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, where there is greater infrastructure.

Last week, the Lula government created an extraordinary secretariat to coordinate preparations for the event.

After visiting Belém, Lula and Macron will participate in the inauguration of a submarine in Itaguaí (RJ) this Wednesday morning (27). Afterwards, the French president will head to São Paulo, where he will take part in an economic forum and visit the Pasteur Institute.

The official visit schedule ends on Thursday (28), in Brasília, with the signing of agreements at Palácio do Planalto, lunch at Itamaraty and reception at Congress.