The presence of president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) at the United Nations Climate Conference — COP27 — in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, is seen favorably by specialists because, in addition to recovering the country’s leading role in the environmental area, it is an opportunity for PT members to meet with global leaders. The summit started last week and runs through Friday. In addition to Lula, the event will be attended by former Minister of the Environment and elected deputy Marina Silva (Rede-SP), and Senator Simone Tebet (MDB-MS), who are expected to assume prominent positions in the future government.
Lula’s simple victory in the October elections has already made Norway and Germany signal for the resumption of the Amazon protection fund, which had its resources stopped during the entire government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), accused of destroying the forests by Europeans. The expectation of sources close to the PT is that Lula signals, in Egypt, the possibility of appointing Marina Silva to the command of a regulatory agency in the environmental area, which will be created in the third term of the PT.
According to diplomat Rubens Ricupero — former Minister of Finance and the Environment —, Lula’s presence at COP27 is “extremely favorable” for Lula and “very positive” for the event and for the world.
“He had already announced his intention to travel before taking office, as had Juscelino Kubitschek and Tancredo Neves for the same reason: to help pass the tense and dangerous period before taking office and not to provide pretexts for coup acts”, highlights Ricupero.
Now, in his evaluation, with Egypt’s invitation for Lula to attend the COP27, the trip takes on the aspect of a presidential trip, of a statesman, of someone who has not yet taken office, but is already seen as the source from which true power in the country derives. Brazil.
“Celso Lafer called Tancredo’s trip before the inauguration that did not take place ‘Tancredo’s presidential moment’. The expression can equally be applied to Lula’s current trip: it will be his first ‘presidential moment’, it will offer him the opportunity to with heads of government and heads of state and to be treated as one of them”, explains the former minister.
In Ricupero’s assessment, the signal Lula needs to give the world on his trip to Egypt, in the company of former minister Marina Silva, is to demonstrate that the Amazon and the environment will be the backbone of his foreign policy. “During Lula’s two previous terms, the environmental issue still did not occupy the central position that it does today on the world agenda. At that time, Lula was valued abroad above all for his social action. Today, however, the environmental issue has acquired an urgency and a central importance that overshadow the other aspects”, he points out. For him, the theme can yield more dividends for Lula and Brazil in terms not only of image, “but also of financing, investments, economic initiatives to take advantage of the country’s potential in the countless constructive aspects of the environment, such as the carbon, payment for environmental services, reforestation, recovery of degraded areas, conquering markets for products with an environmental seal.
It can be said that, for Lula and for Brazil, the environment is a kind of dream subject: it produces enormous returns and does not entail any cost or burden, other than combating the criminal activities of land grabbers, loggers and miners illegal,” said the diplomat.
Environmental governance
Dawisson Belém Lopes, professor of international politics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and researcher at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, also considers Lula and Marina Silva’s trip to Egypt to be “good news”. “This trip makes it clear that the emphasis of the government that will come will be on environmental issues and on global environmental governance, which is a very important issue in current times”, he assesses. “Lula will have the opportunity to be treated as president even before taking office, which is very good, because he anticipates the process and access to global leaders”, he adds.
The consensus among analysts is that, in terms of diplomacy and environmental policy, there will be a 180 degree turnaround in the country with the new government. It is not by chance that the country’s diplomatic representations abroad are realizing the interest in resuming talks with the Brazilian government. Sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimate a greater number of presidents and heads of state than Bolsonaro’s inauguration, which had 10 leaders present. Authorities in Chile, which no longer has an ambassador since the inauguration of the new president, the socialist Gabriel Boric, in March, signaled that the Chilean chief executive will take office for Lula’s inauguration on January 1st.
In an interview with Mail the Brazilian ambassador to Chile, Paulo Pacheco, said that, with the change in government, the tendency is for political and diplomatic relations between the two countries to become more fluid.
Matéria publicada no site The Goa Spotlight em 15/11/2022. Clique aqui para ler a publicação original.