Brazil warns of “point of no return” in Amazon destruction

Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, warned yesterday that the destruction of the Amazon is reaching a “point of no return” and could be irreversible.

During a seminar on Sustainable Development in the Amazon, Silva defended that the point of reference for the Amazon Summit to be held in the coming weeks should be the so-called “point of no return”, a critical threshold beyond which climate change is no longer reversible.

According to her, this term will give greater scope to the standard sustainable development policy, which will be built during the meeting to bring together the heads of state of the eight member countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).

“To think about the Amazon, we have as a reference base the question of the point of no return. We cannot exceed 20 percent destruction in the Amazon under penalty of reaching the point of no return.”

“This would only be a generic statement, but this panel would establish the basis for what would be a joint action, where we could borrow the terms of the Climate Convention,” Silva said, referring to the term that was created concerning the planet as a whole, and not specifically to the Amazon.

The minister’s idea during the Amazon Summit is to show that the Amazon countries will be under an “umbrella” with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, in which each will contribute to preventing the Amazon from reaching a point where the situation is irreversible.

“We cannot exceed a 1.5ºC increase in the Earth’s temperature, nor exceed 20 percent destruction of the Amazon. Otherwise, it will reach a point of no return.”

“In the same way that in 1992, more than 170 countries met [during ECO 92, in Rio de Janeiro] to avoid the point of no return in relation to climate, the eight presidents of the Amazon region can now meet to avoid the point of no return about the destruction of the Amazon Forest”, she added.

For Silva, this umbrella would open space for other specific agreements. “When we cooperate scientifically, culturally, and politically, it is easier to do business.”

“The problem is that we stick to business and don’t create a base of relationships in which people from neighboring countries can increasingly come to our universities, and we go to theirs and create regional thinking.”

According to its environment minister, Brazil aims “to be a mega-forest country that maintains the planet’s ecosystem services because we will be able to move from a high-carbon economy to a low-carbon economy.”

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