Brazil cuts environment funds a day after making climate vow

This picture released on Thursday by the Brazilian presidency press office shows President Bolsonaro (second left) and members of the federal government, including Environment Minister Ricardo Salles (left) and Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Alberto Franca (third left), listening to US President Joe Biden (on screen) speaking during the virtual Earth Day Summit, at the Planalto Palace, in Brasilia.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro approved a 24% cut to the environment budget for 2021 from last year’s level, according to official numbers published on Friday, just one day after he vowed to increase spending to fight deforestation. Speaking on Thursday to the summit organised by US President Joe Biden, Bolsonaro pledged to double the budget for environmental enforcement and end illegal deforestation by 2030. The US government applauded those targets, part of a shift in tone by the far-right leader, although many environmentalists said they would not take the rhetoric seriously before seeing real progress. Less than 24 hours later, Bolsonaro signed off on the 2021 federal budget that included 2bn reais ($365.30mn) for the environment ministry and agencies it oversees, down from 2.6bn initially approved last year, according to the official government gazette. Spending can be adjusted over the course of the year. “The gesture of giving a speech yesterday isn’t enough,” said Congressman Rodrigo Agostinho, leader of the environmental caucus in Congress. “Brazil’s government needs to do its homework.” Bolsonaro vetoed a list of environmental budget provisions worth 240mn reais, including outlays for environmental enforcement. Bolsonaro’s office directed questions to the economy ministry. The ministry said that the environment budget now is in-line with what the president originally proposed, and the vetoes counteracted spending increases approved by Congress. Late on Friday, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles posted on social media a request addressed to the economy ministry for 270mn reais in additional funding for environmental agency Ibama and parks service ICMBio. A detailed budget listing individual expenditures has yet to be released, so it is unclear how much is set aside for environmental enforcement. A breakdown of Bolsonaro’s vetoes listed 11.6mn reais being cut from the enforcement budget for Ibama. After years of ever tighter budgets, the latest cuts threaten to completely paralyse environmental agencies, Agostinho said. On an unrelated matter, Bolsonaro said on Friday that if he were to order the military to take the streets and restore order, “the order will be followed”, raising fresh questions about his politicisation of the armed forces. Speaking during a TV interview, he said he would not “go into details into what I’m preparing”. But he said that “if we were to have problems, we have a plan of how to enter the field ... our armed forces could one day go into the streets”. The comments by Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who has long praised Brazil’s two-decade military dictatorship, will do little to assuage critics who fret about his politicisation of the military. Others worry about his commitment to a peaceful handover of power in the event of a tight result in next year’s presidential election. Pressure has grown on the president as Brazil’s coronavirus pandemic has spiralled out of control. He has faced widespread criticism for his handling of the outbreak in Brazil, which has the world’s second highest coronavirus death toll after the United States. Last month, Bolsonaro put his former chief of staff in charge of the defence ministry and swapped all three commanders of the armed forces as part of a cabinet reshuffle that was met with shock from senior military officers. Since his 2018 election victory, Bolsonaro has made baseless allegations of voter fraud in Brazil, which critics say could lay the groundwork to challenge upcoming elections in the same vein as his political idol, former United States president Donald Trump. Bolsonaro threw his support behind Trump’s conspiracies of a stolen election last year, which culminated in his supporters’ deadly January 6 assault on the Capitol building in Washington.