G7 cash for Amazon fires is 'chump change', say campaigners
Source: The Guardian
G7 cash for Amazon fires is ‘chump change’, say campaigners
World leaders offer $20m now plus reforestation plan, but critics want major policy shifts
Jonathan Watts, Julian Borger and Angelique Chrisafis
Mon 26 Aug 2019 19.05 BST Last modified on Mon 26 Aug 2019 19.32 BST
The G7’s pledge of $20m (£16m) to douse the fires in the Amazon has been dismissed as “chump change” by environmental campaigners, as concerns grow about political cooperation on deforestation and other climate issues.
The summit host, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, told reporters he would try to deal with the long-term causes by creating an international alliance to save the rainforest, with details of a reforestation programme to be unveiled at next month’s UN climate meeting in New York.
But the US president, Donald Trump, skipped the summit session aimed at finding solutions to global heating through tree planting and shifting from fossil fuels to wind energy. In a press conference after the summit, he was dismissive of efforts to change direction.
“I feel the US has tremendous wealth … I’m not going to lose that wealth on dreams, on windmills – which, frankly, aren’t working too well,” he said. “I think I know more about the environment than most.”
The most concrete outcome of the three-day summit of major industrialised democracies in Biarritz was the $20m that leaders promised to make immediately available to Amazonian nations such as Brazil and Bolivia, primarily for more firefighting planes.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/26/chump-change-g7-cash-to-put-out-amazon-wildfires-not-enough-say-campaigners
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