The world’s largest rainforest nations, Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, officially launched a climate partnership on Monday to work together on protection.
All three nations have vast tropical rainforests threatened by deforestation and agriculture.
“Representatives from Indonesia, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo … announced cooperation on tropical forests and climate action at the COP27 (climate summit) side event in Egypt on November 7 and agreed to sign a joint statement today,” Indonesia’s coordinator said Minister of Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said in a statement.
“We need collaboration with others to achieve common goals. Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much,” he said on the eve of the G20 summit.
The deal calls for all three to be compensated by the international community for reducing deforestation, with a focus on common issues such as access to climate finance and the price per tonne of carbon in the carbon credit market.
The Indonesian declaration states that countries “have a common interest in working together to increase the value of their tropical forests and ensure that these tropical forests continue to benefit the climate and people”.
Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to promise a reversal of the environmental policies of his right-wing predecessor Jair Bolsonaro to protect the Amazon rainforest.
His trip to the COP27 talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt – which he will address on Wednesday – will be his first international visit since beating Bolsonaro in a runoff election last month.
During the election campaign, the 77-year-old promised to work for zero deforestation. Brazil will be represented at the G20 summit on Tuesday and Wednesday by Foreign Minister Carlos Franca.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, which is home to 60 percent of the Congo Basin’s vast rainforest, has been criticized for launching an auction in July for oil and gas blocks, some of which are in sensitive areas.
The impoverished Central African nation claims that developing its fossil resources is an economic necessity.
But the country’s environment minister, Eve Bazaida Mazudi, said the three nations could work together to offer solutions to climate change.
“The world is getting warmer right now, so humanity needs rainforests to sequester CO2,” she said, according to the Indonesian statement.
