Bolsonaro assures Brazil is a global example of environmental preservation

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, assured this Friday, June 3, that Brazil is a global example of environmental preservation and has praised the generation of renewable energy from the binational Itaipu national hydroelectric power plant after meeting on the border with Paraguay with his Paraguayan counterpart, Mario Abdo Benitez.

“Brazil is an example to the world in preserving the environment. Two-thirds of our territory is preserved, and we have the second-largest proportional energy matrix”, said the Brazilian president after visiting with Abdo Benítez the works of the Integration Bridge, which will link two cities of both countries.

Bolsonaro also said that Brazil has “a vast path ahead” concerning the development of wind and solar energy in the country, technologies which, according to the Brazilian president, are “increasingly present” in the environment.

The Brazilian president also praised the binational Itaipu for being “an example” for the world for generating energy from renewable sources, as reported by the Brazilian newspaper ‘O Povo’.

Despite Bolsonaro’s assertions, last May, the French government warned that the agreement being negotiated by the EU and Mercosur – a Latin American common market to which Brazil belongs – did not offer “sufficient guarantees” on environmental issues as compliance with the Paris Agreements against climate change.

More recently, the European Commission and the EU’s External Action Service have asked Brazil for a greater commitment from Mercosur countries against deforestation in the Amazon and other sustainable objectives.

With information from La Tercera