set 27 2024 | Nº. 136

Editorial

This week, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva participated in the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, where he underscored his administration's vision for Brazil’s place in the global community. This comes at a moment when Lula has found himself frustrated in many of his foreign policy aims. The political situation in Venezuela remains unchanged despite the Brazilian government’s attempts to encourage Nicolás Maduro to respect the outcome of the July presidential election, which he claims without evidence to have won. A lack of alignment in the region has hindered integration, long one of Lula’s strategic priorities and made it harder for Brazil to exert leadership in South America. Attempts to help broker a peace deal in Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine seem further than ever from succeeding.

Still, Lula remains sought after on the world stage. During the General Assembly, he engaged in numerous bilateral meetings with philanthropists, business leaders, and heads of state, seeking to strengthen partnerships that could foster economic growth and environmental sustainability. For the first time, a meeting of foreign ministers of the G20, which Brazil is presiding over this year, was held at the United Nations. Throughout the week, Lula reiterated his call for a broad reimagining of the structures of global governance to create a more balanced, democratic global order.

In New York, Lula also made a veiled referenced to Twitter/X CEO Elon Musk: “The future of our region depends above all on building a sustainable efficient inclusive state that confronts all forms of discrimination [and] is not intimidated by individuals, corporations or digital platforms that deem themselves above the law.” Indeed, Musk, who for weeks has been locked in a high-stakes dispute with Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, seemed to signal a retreat from his steadfast opposition to complying with Brazilian court orders. In the last few days, Twitter/X unveiled its new legal team in Brazil, a major market for the social media platform that was hemorrhaging users after Moraes ordered that it be blocked, and quietly began removing users deemed to be posting in violation of Brazilian law. Government action remains an important force in an age of growing social media clout. The question, as ever, remains how to deploy state power effectively in a changing world in pursuit of a clear agenda. This is the challenge Lula continues to grapple with as represents Brazil abroad.

Highlights

• Climate change. A survey conducted by the Datafolha Institute revealed this week that 40 percent of residents of the city of São Paulo, the country's largest capital, say their health was “very affected” by the fires recorded throughout Brazil in September. The fires further dried out the air and spread a cloud of soot over many cities. In Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais, 44 percent complained of air pollution; in Rio de Janeiro it was 29 percent. In these three state capitals, the percentage of people who consider the Lula government's response to the situation inadequate reached 75 percent. In São Paulo, the concentration of fine pollutant particles in the atmosphere is 42 percent above the target. The year 2024 already has the worst rates since 2014.

• Drought in the North. The drought affecting the northern region of Brazil has already led to a 40 percent reduction in the volume of grain transported on the Madeira River that takes agricultural products from western Mato Grosso and Rondônia to ports in Amazonas. The ports in this region, known as Arco Norte, account for 33.8 percent of the soybeans exported by Brazil and 42.5 percent of the corn sent abroad. The impact was not greater because most of the exports planned for 2024 had already been shipped. But the recurrence and severity of the phenomenon are worrying.

• Political violence. Pablo Marçal, a candidate for mayor of São Paulo who is trying to position himself to the right of Bolsonaro's supporters, was the protagonist of yet another case of political violence during the campaign. An aide of his punched in the face a member of the team of Ricardo Nunes, the current mayor and candidate for reelection, who has Bolsonaro's formal support. The incident occurred behind the scenes of a debate between the candidates, organized by a podcast called Flow. Marçal had received three warnings from the moderator before being expelled from the debate at the time the fight broke out in the studio. In a previous debate, Marçal had been attacked by another rival, candidate José Luís Datena, also from the Right, who threw a chair at him in front of live cameras.

   

• Brazil and the war. Ali Kamal Abdallah, a 15-year-old Brazilian teenager, was killed in an airstrike in Lebanon, where Israel is carrying out an offensive against the extremist group Hezbollah. The young man's father, who has Lebanese and Paraguayan citizenship, also died. The Beqaa Valley region, where the Israeli attacks are taking place, has a large Brazilian community. The young man lived in Brazil for ten years and had moved to Lebanon four years ago. On a trip to the United States, President Lula said that countries must make a greater effort to put an end to what he calls “genocide” in the region, echoing the term used in the lawsuit filed against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

News from the WBO, Organizations and Social Movements

Far Right. The WBO and Georgetown University held the “2024 Washington Brazil Conference” on Tuesday, September 24, 2024 with the panel, “The Rise of the Far Right: Challenges to Democracy in Brazil and Abroad,” at the Arrupe Multipurpose Room in Georgetown, Washington. The panel included Flávia Pellegrino, from Pacto pela Democracia; Guilherme Casarões, professor of International Relations at FGV (Fundação Getúlio Vargas); and Elcior Santana, from Georgetown University. Read more at this link.

Time frame. A coalition formed by more than ten members of Indigenous movements, together with teams from organizations that work to defend the rights of Indigenous and quilombola peoples, as well as causes related to the environment and religious tolerance, including the WBO, met in Geneva, Switzerland, from September 23 to 27, to carry out a series of activities related to the 57th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Read more at the link.

Government transparency. The organization Transparency International Brazil launched a document containing ten proposed actions for candidates for mayor and city council in Brazil. The document called “Agenda for More Transparent Cities” provides examples of good practices that can be incorporated into government programs as a way of promoting more ethical and responsible governments in their management. To read, click on this link.

Violence against Indigenous people. The Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI) reported this week the second death in two days of a Guarani Kaiowá Indigenous person in the Nhanderu Marangatu Indigenous Land, which is located near the municipality of Antônio João, in the southwest of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Fred Souza Garcete, 15, was found dead with a head wound on a highway in the region. Two days earlier, Neri Ramos da Silva died in the same area, the victim of a gunshot. CIMI places the deaths in the context of land disputes that are occurring in the Nhanderu Marangatu Indigenous Land and demands that the authorities investigate. Read more at this link.

Feature Article

Tackling the Apathy Epidemic to Solve the Climate Crisis

By   Fiona Macklin

The world is facing one of the greatest threats of modern times: an apathy epidemic. 

Temperature records are breaking left, right and centre. Homes are being destroyed from California to Carriacou. Our nature is collapsing faster than we predicted. This devastation is no longer restricted to lands far away: it’s on each of our doorsteps. Brazil itself -- in the last few months alone -- has suffered the worst drought on record and ongoing flooding in Rio Grande do Sul. As this existential threat hurtles towards us at breakneck speed, what do most of us do? We sit back and silently scroll. And scroll. And scroll. 

In 2023, over 70 percent of climate-related articles in the United States and the United Kingdom were objectively fatalist. This defeatist tone is fuelling a sense of helplessness, threatening the belief in ourselves to drive change. A recent Lancet study highlighted how 10,000 people surveyed between 16 and 25 globally agree that “humanity is doomed.” This growing numbness in response to a narrative of gloom is acting as a form of fossil fuel protectionism.

We need a “Ronaldo Chop”-style shift in our mindset if we are going to tackle the climate crisis in time to safeguard our future and that of generations to come. Commitments have been made. Solutions are available. Money is in the system. What we need most of all is to reignite what is arguably our most powerful trait as a human species: our ability to imagine and actively, stubbornly believe in a better future. Here are some thoughts on how we might begin to tackle this apathy epidemic.

Two Truths, One Lie

We currently face two seemingly contradictory truths that are simultaneously right. On the one hand, these extreme weather events continue to worsen more rapidly than predicted, destroying homes and costing millions of dollars and thousands of lives. On the other hand, positive progress is underway across major sectors of the economy. More than two-thirds of annual revenues ($31 trillion) in the world’s largest companies are now aligned with net zero carbon emissions (the balance between the quantity of greenhouse gases produced and the portion of these gases removed from the atmosphere), representing an increase of 45 percent in just two years. The world now invests twice as much in clean tech as it does in fossil fuels. Investing in nature and food is already profitable today. Since the start of the year, at least US$1.4 billion in investments for nature-based solutions (NbS) have been announced in Brazil.

The lie? That this transformation won’t happen fast enough. That decision is up to us. But, if we don’t hear enough about the progress underway and the opportunities to scale this, no wonder we would remain paralysed by our lack of hope. 

Defenders of Paris, Speak Up! 

We know that people want change. Seventy-seven percent of global citizens want their governments to act urgently on climate. Fifty-five of the world's leading multinational companies with combined annual revenues of over $4.4 trillion have published transition plans in line with 1.5° C, a proposal that seeks to bind countries to the commitment of not allowing the increase in temperatures to exceed 1.5°C. In addition, 530 institutional investor signatories and their representatives managing more than $29 trillion assets under management (AUM) have currently signed the Investor Agenda Global Investor Statement calling for policy unlocks to unleash private capital. And yet this appetite for change is still not being heard loud enough. 

We need leaders to dial up the volume. A growing coalition of businesses, investors, subnational governments, civil society actors, and others under Mission 2025– including Allianz, Fortescue, SAP, Unilever, IKEA, Natura & Co, ReNew and 70+ network organisations, such as WMBC, WBCSD, The B Team, C40, Under2 Coalition, HealthCare Without Harm -- are speaking up to collaborate with governments on ratcheting up upcoming national climate plans (known as Nationally Determined Contributions) in line with the Paris Agreement. 

Described as “Defenders of Paris,” these Mission 2025 Partners showed up en force in New York last week where world leaders and global businesses gathered for the UN General Assembly and Climate Week New York, which are crucial moment in the climate calendar. They made it clear that they stand ready to help shape the development and support the delivery of these Nationally Determined Contributions because these plans will provide the political certainty required to unleash investment. Data from the Energy Transitions Commission reveals how the implementation of a small number of investment positive policy measures could scale investment to $1 trillion of the $3.5 trillion per annum required to transition the energy sector in line with the 1.5C° goal.

Let’s stop scrolling and take back control. Let’s step away from our phone-obsession and re-awaken our imagination. Let’s nreak free from our indifference and speak up with confidence.

We need a Carnival Mindset for Climate Action

If there’s anywhere that is wonderfully void of apathy, it’s Carnival in Brazil. We can and must bring that Brazilian effervescence and collective energy into the heart of the global climate movement -- through COP29 (Conference of the Parties 29), NDCs 3.0 (Nationally Determined Contributions 3.0), and towards COP30. We can and must believe in a better future for our planet and ourselves. Apathy towards climate change is a privilege we can't afford. 

Get in touch if you’d like to be part of Mission 2025.

*Fiona Macklin is a climate campaigner, movement builder, and stubborn optimist. She is currently a Senior Advisor to the Groundswell project with Global Optimism, building the “Mission 2025” movement with a wide range of partners.

Feature articles express the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or WBO.