Latin America Advisor

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What Did Amazon Nations Agree to at Their Brazil Summit?

Several South American leaders gathered in the Brazilian city of Belém for the Aug. 8-9 Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization summit. // Photo: Brazilian Government.

Eight Amazon rain forest nations gathered at a summit Aug. 8-9 in Belém, Brazil, to discuss oil drilling and deforestation, among other issues. It was the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization’s (ACTO) first summit in 14 years. The nations agreed to unified environmental policies and measures to boost cooperation on protecting the rain forest but failed to reach a common plan to end deforestation. How significant was the summit, and what came out of it? What prevented the nations from agreeing on a common goal on deforestation? What role in the preservation of the Amazon has the summit outlined for the private sector?

Christian Poirier, program director at Amazon Watch: “The Amazon Summit’s final declaration, while showing positive intentions toward Pan-Amazonian cooperation and efforts to strengthen this collaboration, falls significantly short. The statement maintains unacceptable ambiguity about the continuity of extractivist policies, lacks a concrete plan to protect a keystone region for climatic stability and fails to advance critical protections for the rain forest and human rights. The declaration lacks common targets to eliminate deforestation and fails to establish moratoriums on the expansion of oil and mining exploration in the region, which are critical measures to respond to today’s climate emergency. The declaration repeatedly references the urgent threat of the Amazon rain forest crossing a ‘point of no return’ due to deforestation and burning. However, it fails to establish common goals for Amazonian countries to reach zero deforestation by 2030, a critical benchmark. The inability of ACTO states to set…”

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About the Energy Advisor

A sister publication of the Inter-American Dialogue’s daily Latin America Advisor, the weekly Energy Advisor captures fresh analysis from business leaders and government officials on the most important developments in oil and gas, biofuels, the power sector, renewables, new technologies, and the policy debates shaping the future of energy in the Western Hemisphere and beyond. To subscribe or for more information, contact Gene Kuleta, editor of the Advisor, at gkuleta@thedialogue.org.


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Gene Kuleta

Editor
P. 202.463.2920
E. gkuleta@thedialogue.org

Lara Kovandova

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Nili Blanck

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