Last week’s G7 meeting in Biarritz was notable for hypocrisy about the Amazonian fires. Brazil’s pyromaniac president, Jair Bolsonaro, is certainly a serious problem and the spreading destruction of forests bodes ill for the future, but it hardly becomes the likes of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and Canada to lecture the Brazilians on the risk of climate breakdown.
Donald Trump at least did everyone a favour by keeping a low profile on this one issue but for six countries at the forefront of high carbon emissions for decades to preach change in Brazil is one more indication of the increasing irrelevance of the G7 itself.
At least on one issue, Iran, there was a worthwhile initiative, with Emmanuel Macron inviting the Iranian foreign minister first to Paris before the summit and then to Biarritz itself. Macron just managed to keep Trump sweet even if US media outlets reported that his advisors were caught on the hop and were furious with the French.
