In Brazil, Secretary Kerry advanced the U.S.-Brazil Climate Change Working Group that Presidents Biden and Lula relaunched during their February 10 meeting. He met with senior government officials, congressional representatives, and civil society leaders and discussed opportunities for Brazil and the United States to collaborate on combating the climate crisis, halting and reversing deforestation, advancing the clean energy transition, and building a strong bioeconomy.
According to Vice-president Geraldo Alckmin, the United States is committed to raising substantial resources for the Amazon Fund, although the Americans have not yet defined an amount to be donated.
The statements were given after a meeting between Alckmin and the US special envoy for the climate, John Kerry, at the Itamaraty Palace, which was also attended by the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, other representatives of the Brazilian government and from United States.
“The envoy John Kerry did not define a value but stated that he will work together with the government, with the North American Congress and with the private sector in order to have substantial resources, not only in the Amazon Fund but also in other cooperations”, said Alckmin after the meeting.
The US intention to contribute to the Amazon Fund, recently reactivated by the Brazilian government, was announced in February during the Brazilian president visit to the U.S.
The US ambassador to Brazil, Elizabeth Bagley, said this month that the amount to be donated to the Amazon Fund is still being defined by the US government and Congress.
Amazon Fund
The Amazon Fund aims to finance projects to reduce deforestation and monitor the biome. The funding mechanism had been deactivated in the past government and has now been reactivated following a determination by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) . The fund currently has BRL 5.4 billion, BRL 1.8 billion of which have already been contracted and there are 14 projects from the 2018 public notice qualified for approval.
Created in 2008, the fund receives donations from international institutions and governments to finance actions to prevent and combat deforestation in the Legal Amazon. In 2019, Germany and Norway suspended transfers to new projects after the Brazilian government, under the management of Jair Bolsonaro, presented suggestions for changing the application of resources and extinguishing collegiate bodies for managing the money.
Source: Agência Brasil