A shocked Brazilian

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David Steven, 11 - 12 - 2007

This afternoon saw a sparky press conference from the Brazilian foreign minister, Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim.

Amorim represented Brazil at the weekend's talk on trade and climate, where he found himself in a public spat with the US trade rep over the exclusion of biofuels from a proposal to cut tariffs on environmental products.

The move is rank protectionism, he told me, and is still furious about the rejection of what he regards one of the few proven technologies for lowering carbon emissions.

Amorim also talked at length about Brazilian efforts to combat deforestation, prompting me to ask him about suggestions (see my post yesterday) that the Amazon may be close to ‘die off'.

I was expecting him to reject the suggestion, but not at all. His reply shows the genuine alarm felt by senior political figures as they are briefed on the latest climate science.

Quote:

I'm a minister for foreign affairs. I'm not a scientist. I am not someone who deals with the environment.

But one of the things that concerned me most as I read the conclusions of the IPCC is this. Even if we reduce, and hopefully eliminate deforestation, and the emissions of carbon go up in the way they are now in developing countries, the Amazon forest will probably disappear.

This is the most shocking thing.

"People used to see deforestation of the Amazon as the big global warming culprit," he argued. "Actually it may be the biggest victim of climate change and global warming."

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