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Amazon rainforest fires: Brazil to reject $20m pledged by G7
Source: The Guardian and agencies
Amazon rainforest fires: Brazil to reject $20m pledged by G7
Senior official says funds should be spent on reforesting Europe and not on ‘colonialist practices’
Jonathan Watts Global environment editor, and agencies
@jonathanwatts
Tue 27 Aug 2019 08.23 BST First published on Tue 27 Aug 2019 06.25 BST
A senior Brazilian official has told Emmanuel Macron to take care of “his home and his colonies” as Brazil rejected an offer from G7 countries of $20m (£16m) to help fight fires in the Amazon.
“We appreciate [the offer], but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,” Onyx Lorenzoni, the chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, told the G1 news website.
Leaders of the G7 countries made the aid offer at a weekend summit in the French city of Biarritz hosted by the French president, who had put the fires high on the agenda. Environmental campaigners have dismissed the sum as “chump change”.
“Macron cannot even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church that is a world heritage site,” Lorenzoni said in a reference to the blaze that devastated the Notre Dame cathedral in April. “What does he intend to teach our country?
“Brazil is a democratic, free nation that never had colonialist and imperialist practices, as perhaps is the objective of the Frenchman Macron.”
-snip-
Senior official says funds should be spent on reforesting Europe and not on ‘colonialist practices’
Jonathan Watts Global environment editor, and agencies
@jonathanwatts
Tue 27 Aug 2019 08.23 BST First published on Tue 27 Aug 2019 06.25 BST
A senior Brazilian official has told Emmanuel Macron to take care of “his home and his colonies” as Brazil rejected an offer from G7 countries of $20m (£16m) to help fight fires in the Amazon.
“We appreciate [the offer], but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,” Onyx Lorenzoni, the chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, told the G1 news website.
Leaders of the G7 countries made the aid offer at a weekend summit in the French city of Biarritz hosted by the French president, who had put the fires high on the agenda. Environmental campaigners have dismissed the sum as “chump change”.
“Macron cannot even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church that is a world heritage site,” Lorenzoni said in a reference to the blaze that devastated the Notre Dame cathedral in April. “What does he intend to teach our country?
“Brazil is a democratic, free nation that never had colonialist and imperialist practices, as perhaps is the objective of the Frenchman Macron.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/amazon-fires-brazil-to-reject-20m-pledged-by-g7