Biden still has hopes for Brazil\u2019s climate leadership, but the State Department looks to Colombia to take the helm in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WASHINGTON\u2014President Joe Biden\u2019s climate summit of 40 world leaders this week will be Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s \u201clast chance<\/a>\u201d to restore Washington\u2019s confidence in Brazil\u2019s commitment to taking action to fight climate change, the U.S. ambassador to Brazil has warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But pressure from Brazilian civil society groups has complicated the situation for Bolsonaro, and paved the way for one of its neighbors\u2014Colombia\u2014to step in as Latin America\u2019s primary leader on climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A bilateral agreement Brazilian officials had hoped could be announced during the summit has stalled<\/a> after nearly 200 Brazilian advocacy groups sent a joint letter<\/a> to Biden earlier this month, calling on him to \u201cchoose between being true to his speech and lending political prestige and money to Bolsonaro.\u201d They warned that negotiating with the Brazilian president \u201cis not the same as helping Brazil solve its problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Biden\u2019s top aide for Latin America, Juan Gonzalez, met with Colombian President Iv\u00e1n Duque last week to discuss the country\u2019s regional climate leadership<\/a>. Gonzalez\u2019s South American tour did not include a stop in Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, 15 Senate Democrats joined the effort to rebuff the Brazilian president by writing to <\/a>Biden that cooperation between the two nations \u201ccan only be possible if the Bolsonaro administration begins to take Brazil\u2019s climate commitments seriously.\u201d They added that U.S. aid to Brazil should be conditioned \u201con the Brazilian government making significant, sustainable progress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The efforts by the Brazilian groups are \u201cbreaking through to policymakers in the U.S.,\u201d said Jessica Carey-Webb, a Latin America campaign advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council. \u201cThe Biden administration is cognizant of the issues in dealing with Bolsonaro and Brazil \u2026 They are trying to be cautious and do their due diligence in terms of really thinking through what a potential deal could look like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles announced<\/a> on Friday that \u201cthere is not and was never the objective of negotiating some kind of deal to deliver on April 22.\u201d Last week, White House Spokeswoman Jen Psaki had already stated that the forum was not intended as a platform for bilateral negotiations or deals, but for nations to lay out plans for increasing their ambition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolsonaro and his American counterpart have clashed over climate policy at least since last year\u2019s elections, when President Joe Biden expressed outrage that \u201crainforests of Brazil are being torn down.\u201d Bolsonaro, closely allied with the Trump administration, called Biden\u2019s declaration \u201cdisastrous and unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than half a year later, in a Wednesday letter to Biden, Bolsonaro expressed<\/a> his \u201ccommitment to eliminate illegal deforestation in Brazil by 2030\u201d and asked for the U.S. president\u2019s \u201cpersonal engagement\u201d to address the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also noted that to address the problem, Brazil will require \u201cmassive resources,\u201d including financial support from \u201cthe United States government, the private sector and the American civil society.\u201d (After Biden said during a debate last September that he would \u201cmake sure<\/a>\u201d the international community raised $20 billion for the Brazilian Amazon, Bolsonaro said he did not take \u201cbribes.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later last week, Salles announced Brazil will need $10 billion<\/a> a year in aid to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, a few days after announcing Brazil had requested $1 billion<\/a> upfront from Western nations to protect the Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reacting to Bolsonaro\u2019s letter, Biden\u2019s Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry expressed<\/a> on Twitter that \u201cPresident Bolsonaro\u2019s recommitment to eliminating illegal deforestation is important. We look forward to immediate actions and engagement with indigenous populations and civil society so this announcement can deliver tangible results.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever relationship emerges, the Biden administration might already have its eyes on Colombia to lead Latin America\u2019s fight against climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last week, in his first official trip to South America, Gonz\u00e1lez visited Bogot\u00e1 to discuss, among other topics, the country\u2019s \u201cregional climate leadership<\/a>.\u201d After the meeting, Colombian Foreign Affairs Minister Claudia Blum indicated that climate policy was a \u201cbig part<\/a>\u201d of the meeting, in which they \u201cexplored the decisions taken by Colombia to tackle climate change and the American interests in this global agenda.\u201d At another event last week, Andrew Griffin, a State Department deputy director, saluted<\/a> Colombia for its climate leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe United States recognizes Colombia\u2019s leadership in the region on tackling climate change, including efforts to aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve the Amazon, tackle deforestation and other illicit activities, and further develop its renewable energy market,\u201d a State Department official said. \u201cThose efforts include Colombia\u2019s announcement of an ambitious update to its nationally determined contribution and its detailed implementation plan\u201d for the Paris climate agreement on climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its environmental action forecast for 2021, published in December, the NRDC listed<\/a> Colombia as a \u201cclimate leader\u201d and Brazil as a \u201cclimate laggard.\u201d While Colombia\u2019s nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement include a vow to reduce<\/a> greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030 and to plant 180 million trees in the next year, Brazil became one of the only participant countries to decrease the level of ambition<\/a> of its goals. The country has increased the amount of carbon emissions it is permitting and has allowed for higher levels of Amazon deforestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although both countries form part of the Amazon basin, almost two-thirds of the rainforest\u2019s territory is located in Brazil. Under Bolsonaro, deforestation has skyrocketed, reaching a 12-year peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About a possible shift in climate leadership in Latin America, the State Department official said that \u201ctackling the climate crisis requires global partnerships with big impacts,\u201d and added that both \u201cBrazil and Colombia will be key partners in finding and implementing the solutions to this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the Bolsonaro administration said that, together, Brazil and Colombia \u201ccontribute to the sustainable development of the Amazon,\u201d and added that \u201cassistance from the United States would enable Brazil to ramp up these efforts and further its ambition to preserve the Amazon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Brazilian government welcomes the engagement of all Amazonian countries in efforts to preserve the forest and contribute to the social development of the region,\u201d the Brazilian Embassy in Washington said in a statement. \u201cThe preservation of the Amazon is a common challenge that can only be tackled through the cooperation of all the countries in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n