The G7 agreed on a financial package to help fight the wildfires raging in the Amazon rainforest, and will commit $20 whole million to the effort according to the New York Times.
Mr. Macron and President Sebastián Piñera of Chile said they also had reached an agreement in principle with the countries of the Amazon basin for a long-term program of forest protection and reforestation of cleared lands. They said more details might be presented next month at the United Nations General Assembly. –New York Times
President Trump did not attend the session on climate, oceans and biodiversity which included several non-G7 members. The US president was holding meetings with other world leaders at the time, while a senior member of the Trump administration attended instead according to White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
As the Times notes, with tens of thousands of fires currently burning in the region, “it is not clear how far $20 million will go in combating them.”
Mr. Piñera said the affected countries particularly needed specialized aircraft and specially trained and equipped fire brigades.
Mr. Macron and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, have called the Amazon fires a global crisis and a significant contributor to climate change, and insisted that the Group of 7 address it. –New York Times
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro admitted last Thursday that farmers might be illegally setting fires to clear land for pasture, after previously blaming NGOs for the the 85% spike in wildfires, compared to 2018.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2LdyXir Tyler Durden