This article was first published on the 23rd of August, 2019 by Patrick Carpen.
Last updated: August 23, 2019 at 5:14 am
After French President Emmanuel Macron calls a meeting of the G7, a group of the richest countries, for an emergency meeting on the fires that strike the Amazon, Brazil will face great international pressure. According to international relations experts, in addition to embarrassment, the country could be sanctioned and have trade agreements damaged.
From January 1st 2019 to Tuesday (20th August), 74,155 fire outbreaks were recorded: up 84% from the same period in 2018, according to the National Institute for Space Research. A little over half (52.6%) of these outbreaks have occurred in the Amazon.
“The G7 is not a group with a deliberative role in a case like this, but they are international powers that put political pressure on an environmentalist agenda, which creates international embarrassment,” says the professor of politics and international relations at the School of Sociology and Politics Foundation from Sao Paulo, Rodrigo Fernando Gallo.
This pressure can result in economic sanctions or possibly even damage to international trade. “This gradually causes Brazil to be forced to take action. The G7’s biggest weapon is international pressure,” the professor explains.
Trade agreements such as Mercosur’s with the European Union, for example, can also be undermined. “The Amazon is considered the Humanity Partrimony. When we neglect the care of the forest, we signal to the rest of the world that we are not taking care of a heritage. Treating the Amazon with disdain is a bad sign from Brazil to the international system.”
In addition to the distrust caused by Brazil’s environmental policy, President Jair Bolsonaro’s remarks of arson by NGOs also had international repercussions.
According to Professor Arnaldo Francisco Cardoso of Mackenzie University’s International Relations, the president’s speeches “do not contribute to the evolution of a delicate situation, which has been treated for many years.”
He emphasizes Brazil’s leading role in international agreements on environmental preservation. “A country that disregards international commitments becomes an outcast in the international community because it breaks the principle of trust,” says Cardoso.
Brazil has had an effective role in the environmental agenda. It had participated in 1972 at the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm and hosted Earth Summit 1992 and Earth Summit 2012.
“We built our foreign policy with a foot in the environmental agenda. We are neglecting this agenda now. After investing since the 70’s, we can’t lose this tradition. We can’t afford to lose a space we have gained in the system.” Rodrigo Fernando Gallo concludes.
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