The Brazilian Government gave a strong signal arriving at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, represented by Minister Fernando Haddad and Minister Marina Silva. The innovative presence of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, pari passu - or "with an equal step" - with the Ministry of Finance, echoes the message of extraordinary repercussion caused by the presence of Lula, still as president-elect, at COP 27, in Egypt, last November.Such gestures express Brazil's willingness to become a protagonist in a low-carbon global economy. The message goes out to the world, but it is up to us, Brazilians - especially business players - to embrace the opportunity to make this green light from the Government the color of a new national economy, sustainable and resilient to face the hard challenges that have been announced, including an "extremely probable" global recession, as announced among the cold of the Forum.In her first speech in Davos, Minister Marina Silva demanded from the rich nations the 100 billion dollars a year for developing countries to fight global warming. The promise, signed in the Paris Agreement in 2015, is already beginning to smell like a universal default, as it threatens life on the face of the Earth. Unlocking climate finance, therefore, is as necessary as putting an end to the burning and deforestation of the Amazon.The minister highlights the importance of resources for mitigation and adaptation actions. As we know, mitigation is about reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere; and adaptation is about reducing the effects of global warming. But the more equal steps taken by Marina and Haddad in Davos make us believe that the government of president Lula should look at sustainable business with the same urgency as mitigation and adaptation, so as to structure the productive base of the national green economy, with due prominence for the Amazon.Unlocking climate finance should be more than passing on resources to developing country governments. It will be effective when its money reaches the communities that take care of biomes and biodiversity. The Climate Fund, the one of the 100 billion dollars charged by the Minister, can finance sustainable productive activities. Likewise, the Biodiversity Fund, created at COP15. Then it would be interesting to think how other financial mechanisms directed to the environment, such as the Amazon Fund itself, capitalized by countries like Norway and Germany, can also reserve resources for sustainable businesses that generate employment, income, and quality of life for those who live in the Amazon or on the floor of other biomes that we need to conserve.In such an unequal world, even more so in a country as unequal as ours, opportunities and inclusion must be created, otherwise the frustration of human needs and local expectations may undermine the global mobilization to contain climate catastrophes.Pari passu with Davos, at another prestigious world event, the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2023, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission and driver of the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, stated almost prophetically: “If people can't make it to the end of the month, the end of the planet is not their main concern.”&nbsp;

Ministros Brasileiros em Davos_Foto_SECOM-PR.jpeg

large_Ministros Brasileiros em Davos_Foto_SECOM-PR.jpeg

medium_Ministros Brasileiros em Davos_Foto_SECOM-PR.jpeg

small_Ministros Brasileiros em Davos_Foto_SECOM-PR.jpeg

thumbnail_Ministros Brasileiros em Davos_Foto_SECOM-PR.jpeg

Architect and a civil construction entrepreneur, CEO of Instituto Amazônia+21, President of the Federation of Industries in the State of Rondônia.

Mitigation, adaptation and business - pari passu

Jesting or not, many people comment with incredulity that COP-15 took place after COP-27. It would be funny if it were an unintentional oversight by ONU, but the tragic thing is that the fact hides – or reveals – the little importance given to the loss of biodiversity, something as dangerous as climate changes. We know that COP is the acronym in English for “Conference of the Parties”, being “parties”, the countries involved. But COP-27 was the twenty-seventh edition of the Climate Convention, while the recent COP-15 was the fifteenth edition of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The good news is that the misunderstanding about the numbering enhances the visibility of the biodiversity COP, which has always received much less attention than the ONU conferences on climate changes.Climate and biodiversity are directly related. The movement of one, impacts on the other and their causes and effects are interwoven, that is, both require more involvement from society and more effectiveness of the containment work of countries and international mechanisms. But in this case, what matters is that both COP-27 on Climate and COP-15 on Biodiversity are being considered as the most important of all ever held.&nbsp; The Climate COP-27, in Egypt grew in importance by strengthening a financial mechanism for compensation of losses and damages, which helps the most vulnerable countries to face the effects of climate changes. But rich nations still owe transparency and effectiveness concerning climate finance, a sector in which they promise to invest 100 billion dollars a year. COP-15 on Biodiversity made history with the Kunming-Montreal Agreement, signed by 190 countries, with the purpose of protecting 30% of land, oceans, and species until 2030. Just to have an idea, today, only 17% of land and 8% of seas have some sort of formal protection. For this reason, many already consider that the framework of COP-15 represents to Biodiversity what Paris Agreement represents to the climate issue, resulting in a pact which achieved the target to limit the global warming at 1.5ºC by 2100.&nbsp; Anyway, urgency is required. Scientists warn that human activity has already altered 75% of the ecosystems in the planet and puts hundreds of thousands of species at risk of extinction. On the other hand, humanity needs to prosper and create opportunities for excluded populations. And the World Economic Forum recognizes that half of the global economy depends on nature.&nbsp; COP-15 on Biodiversity created means to guarantee 30 billion dollars for conservation in developing countries. From COP-27 on Climate, emerged the consensus that at least 30% of the annual 100 billion dollars in Climate Financing should be invested in biodiversity. Suitably, Brazil ratified the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing. More legitimacy was given to our participation in the Climate COP-27 and, even more in COP-15 on Biodiversity. On both occasions, I presented the Instituto Amazônia as an innovative local initiative for connecting national or transnational investments and sustainable business opportunities in the guardian forest of one of the richest biodiversity spots on earth. In both conferences, either in climate or biodiversity, hope grew to save the one and only planet we deserve to live on.

bioparque da amazônia da vale - ft- márcio nagano (10).jpg

large_bioparque da amazônia da vale - ft- márcio nagano (10).jpg

medium_bioparque da amazônia da vale - ft- márcio nagano (10).jpg

small_bioparque da amazônia da vale - ft- márcio nagano (10).jpg

thumbnail_bioparque da amazônia da vale - ft- márcio nagano (10).jpg

Two conferences and a hope

Now, the world wakes up to the foundations underlying “Professor Samuel Benchimol” and “Banco da Amazônia de Empreendedorismo Consciente” Awards: the power of the Amazon nature. In the face of the climate crisis, the world is turning to where the great tropical forests are. The 27th United Nations Climate Conference, in Sharm El Sheikh, in Egypt, claimed Brazil to play a leading role. This is positive, but it will not be a reality, unless Amazon’s effective participation is included.Historically banned from the national economy, the Amazon has the largest biodiversity in the world, strategic freshwater reserves and a remarkable capacity to store carbon. It is crystal clear that the Brazilian protagonism in the environmental issues and for a global economy with less carbon emission, as well as the country's own sustainable development, depends on the inclusion of the Amazon.From a social and human perspective, Samuel Benchimol award combined examples of the entrepreneurial and academic capacity of the Amazonian people. On the other hand, Banco da Amazônia gave prestige the Amazon vocation for economic growth. By gathering the wards created in different circumstances, but commonly inspired, the Benchimol family and Basa highlighted the practice of cooperation at the highest level. In addition, they face the challenge of sustainability by seeking solutions, such as the 129 initiatives that applied for this 18th edition of the “Professor Samuel Benchimol and Banco da Amazônia de Empreendedorismo Consciente” Awards. Ten of them were winners, in 6 distinct award categories.The award &nbsp;entitled “Personality Dedicated to the Sustainable Development of the Amazon Region” was won by Adélio Barofaldi, from Porto Velho. “Enterprise in the Amazon” award&nbsp;was won by Hidrelética de Santo Antônio. The category “Microbusiness in the Amazon, Urban”, was won by Cristiane Melo Lima’s Ebenezer Cosméticos; and the same ward for “Rural” context was won by Roseni Machado’s Sítio Deus Proverá. The first categories mentioned praise socio-environmental commitments and good governance, while the latter two highlight innovation and sustainable solutions. The “Sustainable Development in the Amazon Region" category was won by three initiatives: “Extraction and processing of Amazon oils and butters to strengthen the network in the Acará community”, by Gilberto Hirokazu Nobumasa (Belém); “Alternatives for controlling black sigatoka on banana trees in the Amazon”, by Luadir Gasparotto and Mirza Carla Normando Pereira (Manaus); and “Biofemme of the Amazon, a sustainable sanitary pad affordable to women in vulnerability", by Claudia Guerra Monteiro (Manaus).For the “Local Development Initiative" category, there were also three winners: “Cultivation of algae in the Amazon as a guarantee of a protein source in the future”, by Renilto Frota Correa and Jaqueline de Araújo Bezerra (Manaus); “Seeding of edible forests with remotely piloted aircraft in degraded areas”, by Renilto Frota Correa, Jaqueline de Araújo Bezerra, Walter Andrés Vermehren Valenzuela and Valdely Ferreira Kinupp (Manaus); and “Community-based tourism with sustainable use of space and maintenance of traditions in Raposa” (Roraima), by Enoque Raposo and Éder Rodrigues dos Santos (Boa Vista).The descriptors of the initiatives highlighted by the Amazon Awards indicate possibilities that can, in fact, be considered an invitation to partnerships with companies, institutions and communities that – besides the particularity of the conserved biome – offer the human contribution of more than 30 million Amazonian people to foment the Brazilian protagonism in the challenge of a sustainable world. &nbsp;

Insetos da Amazônia - Borboletário - mangal das garças - Foto Thiago Gomes (46).JPG

large_Insetos da Amazônia - Borboletário - mangal das garças - Foto Thiago Gomes (46).JPG

medium_Insetos da Amazônia - Borboletário - mangal das garças - Foto Thiago Gomes (46).JPG

small_Insetos da Amazônia - Borboletário - mangal das garças - Foto Thiago Gomes (46).JPG

thumbnail_Insetos da Amazônia - Borboletário - mangal das garças - Foto Thiago Gomes (46).JPG

President of the Federation of Industries of the State of Rondônia, he also presides over the Ação Pró-Amazônia, an association that brings together the nine federations of industries in the states of the Legal Amazon. CEO of Instituto Amazônia+21, aimed at promoting sustainable business in the Amazon.

Amazon Awards

In the trail of Hurricane Ian, one of the most devastating in the history of the United States, President Joe Biden affirmed that the existence or not of climate change is a closed debate. This should accelerate the transition to a low-carbon global economy, where Brazil can play a leading role. Sustaining such assertion, is the differential of the Amazon. No other country worldwide has anything like it, whether in terms of carbon sequestration, biodiversity or water resources.Climate change requires compensation that the Amazon can afford, but this will become possible only if we are able to identify and transform opportunities for sustainable business within the Amazon itself. This condition was pretty clear at the Amazônia+21 Forum, held in 2020 by an articulation of entrepreneurs in the region, with support from the National Confederation of Industry. The virtual event reached 20 countries and more than 25 thousand participants in real time.The Forum revealed the main challenge for companies and enterprises installed in the North of Brazil is the difficulty of accessing credit, investors and strategic partners. Hence, the purpose of ​​Instituto Amazônia+21 of connecting local opportunities and sustainable national or transnational financing emerges. Our proposal is clear: if you want to do sustainable business in the Amazon, invest in those who effectively know the region.The Amazon is very large and Its states have micro-regions with different characteristics, and it is essential to know the territory where you are going to work. Local realities call for distinct interventions, compatible with their ecosystems and with the whole of the Amazon biome.&nbsp;Here, the ESG approach of environmental, social responsibility and governance in companies and their production chains proves adequate and desirable, with the dissemination of sustainable practices, innovation, incorporation of technology and the inclusion of urban, rural, forest and riverside communities.Large national industries have reduced emissions and are in line with the requirements of international markets, but Brazil will not have sustainable development until it allows the Amazon to play a leading role in the national economy. The structuring of sustainable production chains in the region is what can consolidate Brazilian influence on the global agenda and attract climate finance, enabling sustainable development throughout the country.Tolstoy advocates that to be universal requires taking care of your village. This is what makes Instituto Amazônia+21 an open Amazon solution for partners from anywhere in the world. There is room for large, medium and small companies and businesses.Our trajectory is beginning, but it is already accredited by the association of Fundação Jari, Grupo Ultra, Coca-Cola, Jirau Energia, Energisa, Santo Antônio Energia, Grupo White Solder and ABDI. It also reveals quality in partnerships with the Rioterra Studies Center, CBIC, Sudam, Abiplast, Abinee, Abrinq, Fapesp, Fundación Avina, Instituto Arapyaú, ICLEI, CDP/Disclosure Insight Action, Cosmob and Blend Group. Through CNI, we are able to access an extraordinary network of companies and institutions, including outside Brazil, while our capillarity in the Amazon region is based on the Industry Federations of the nine states of the Legal Amazon.Where sustainability and innovation are desired, Instituto Amazônia+21 emerges as a genuine Amazon solution and is worth being well known.

Instituto Amazônia +21 - Foto: Divulgação

large_Instituto Amazônia .jpg

medium_Instituto Amazônia .jpg

small_Instituto Amazônia .jpg

thumbnail_Instituto Amazônia .jpg

Instituto Amazônia +21 - Foto: Divulgação.jpg

Architect and construction entrepreneur. President of the Federation of Industries of the State of Rondônia, he also presides over the Ação Pró-Amazônia, an association that brings together the nine federations of industries in the states of the Legal Amazon. CEO of Instituto Amazônia+21, aimed at promoting sustainable business in the Amazon.

A solution from the Amazon

In February, the news about the war in Ukraine dropped like a bomb in the Brazilian news. Suddenly, the Russian fertilizers used in our agribusiness would be lacking. The impact of this shortage would exacerbate inflation, affecting families from Oiapoque to Chuí. The incredible thing, I thought at the time, is how our country never considers the possibility of being affected by external problems, such as the war in Ukraine.Months have gone by, the news of the war lost audience and the consequences of the conflict in Eastern Europe over the Brazilian economy are even less commented.&nbsp; Not only the State, but the society as a whole, including the productive sector, seem to have lost interest in the economic splinters that hit Brazil since the exchange of attacks between Putin and Zelensky started.The risks to our economy, in great evidence in February and March, do not stem only from the distant war, they are, effectively, wounds of the weakened health of Brazilian productive activity, which lacks a solid foundation geared towards its sustainability. It’s imperative that we build up a country with a vision of the future. The first step is to understand that the globalized economy requires more care with the basic economy.I insist that Brazil has two fundamental challenges: the reconstruction of the national industry, supported by the structuring of sustainable production chains, and the construction of a sustainable development project with the inclusion and protagonism of the Amazon. Of course, a national project that fits in the world of the 21st century cannot be carried out with a focus ‘on one's own navel’, it is necessary to have the feeling of globality instead. While Brazilians forget about a war that threatens to escalate and change the mood of the planet, Germany announces the nationalization of Uniper, a giant company of the energy sector, strongly affected by the cuts in natural gas supplies from Russia to the European Union.It is also evident that a national project cannot be built without competent and qualified debate in the National Congress. And, once again, civic amnesia breaks out, limiting us. Almost all emphasis on the October 2 elections is concerned with disputes in the field of the Executive Power. Very little is discussed about elections to the Legislature.I apologize for the straightforwardness of the warning, but we need to identify and vote for deputies and senators who ‘effectively’ make the National Congress include on its agenda, the concern for 60% of the Brazilian territory and the immeasurable natural treasure that is the Brazilian Amazon. This concern must include the state of Acre, but also&nbsp; Faria Lima Street in São Paulo. No more room for the mediocrity of regarding the Manaus Free Trade Zone as a threat to São Paulo's industry.The congress needs to act politically in order to end regional inequalities. The insertion of the Amazon into the Brazilian economy requires an effective investment plan in the region, with cheap and unbureaucratic financing for sustainable businesses. The Southeast and Amazon cannot be treated equally, because the regions are unequal. Where there is more exclusion, more public policies are needed to include communities in the economy. In short, it is necessary to rethink the Federative Pact to include the Amazon in Brazil.War and ballot are too serious issues to be remembered just as they happen. &nbsp;

large_portos foto tarso sarraf (2).JPG

medium_portos foto tarso sarraf (2).JPG

small_portos foto tarso sarraf (2).JPG

thumbnail_portos foto tarso sarraf (2).JPG

portos foto tarso sarraf (2).JPG

War and Ballot

We need 100 billion dollars yearly. In a rough monetary conversion, It means something around 480 billion reais, every 12 months. The amount seems stratospheric, but it is just reasonable if humanity is to stand up against climate changes. At COP 26, in Glasgow - Scotland, the world leaders decided to strengthen the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 by 175 countries. The compromise is to do everything possible to hold the rise of the planet’s average temperature at less than 2 degrees centigrade, when compared to the pre-industrial levels, aiming at 1,5 degrees as the desired goal.In addition to keeping strict control of the promise to lessen the carbon emissions until 2030, COP 26 also stressed the tone insisting upon results towards minimizing methane emissions and decreasing deforestation levels. It is evident that Brazil, with its vast tropical forests, draws attention at this moment. The Brazilian Government took on bold goals concerning the reduction of carbon and methane emissions, as well as of deforestation, including zeroing logging activities until 2028.The pacts and compromises signed during the COP 26 reached Brazil, and specially&nbsp; Amazon, as a hopeful gust of wind. We have committed to the conservation of the Amazonian biome and we need money to keep our forests standing. Brazil is the country with the greater vocation for green economy and the Amazon contains 15% of the planet’s biodiversity.The decision of investing 100 billion a year on the fight against climate changes, having the richest nations on the control of this cash flow, cannot fail to include investment opportunities in Brazilian biomes, creating sustainable business and revolutionizing national industry under the ESG, with the effective practices of environmental, social and governance values.But time never stops, and we are 10 months away from COP 26, with our memories from Glasgow turning into real concerns about the ineffectiveness of the decisions announced in the conference. Global leaders need to awake to the need of ensuring celerity in moving financial resources to fight the causes of global warming, which is as urgent as the climate crises itself. It is necessary to make sure such resources effectively get to the communities, enterprises and institutions capable of producing positive impacts in forests and all biomes on the planet.The concern aggravates when we realize that, in 2009, COP 15, based in Copenhagen-Denmark, referred to an annual financial support of 100 billion to help countries of the South&nbsp; fight local global warming causes. Although OCDC publicized that such investments achieved 79,6 billion in 2019, the president of COP 26, the British politician Alok Sharma, affirmed in Glasglow that the figures for 2020 were unknown, suggesting "nearly convict that the goal had not been achieved". Sharma said he hoped the goal would be met by 2023.Unfortunately, there is little transparency, and it should not be so difficult to know how the amount of 100 billion dollars is being spent. COP 27 is scheduled for next November in Sharm Sheikk-Egypt. It's about time for a conference to bring clarity about the flows of climate financing, allowing a glimpse on the effectively and directly applied resources in critical regions, such as Amazon.&nbsp; &nbsp;

INCENDIO, QUEIMADA, FLORESTA, PARAUAPEBAS, PARA, JRB_3260.jpg foto joao ramid.jpg

large_INCENDIO, QUEIMADA, FLORESTA, PARAUAPEBAS, PARA, JRB_3260.jpg foto joao ramid.jpg

medium_INCENDIO, QUEIMADA, FLORESTA, PARAUAPEBAS, PARA, JRB_3260.jpg foto joao ramid.jpg

small_INCENDIO, QUEIMADA, FLORESTA, PARAUAPEBAS, PARA, JRB_3260.jpg foto joao ramid.jpg

thumbnail_INCENDIO, QUEIMADA, FLORESTA, PARAUAPEBAS, PARA, JRB_3260.jpg foto joao ramid.jpg

Where is the money?

Liberal Amazon confers me this great space to debate the Amazon. I always try to do this with a hopeful look at our capacity of building a Brazilian sustainable development project. Election period is pretty close, therefore I feel I need to position myself, as a columnist, dealing with regional inequalities.Unless Brazil turns this key, we will continue with our feet chained to the 19th century agenda, with the basic sanitation deficit being the most glaring of our neglected problems. In this context, the advances towards the 21st century will be restricted to the most consolidated development poles in the South and Southeast regions, thus, aggravating regional inequalities.&nbsp;Our political and economic forces must keep in mind that Legal Amazon represents 59% of the Brazilian territory. More than half of our map needs to be included in the Brazilian economy scenery, not only aiming at the development of the region, but also enabling Brazil to have a sustainable development project. Focusing beyond our continental borders, regarding challenges and opportunities for globalization, requires the conviction that Brazilian GDP needs both to include the Amazon in the economy, and to encourage the protagonism of the region. These actions can ensure the sustainability of a green economy, expanded in structured production chains and distributed throughout the country, according to regional vocations.The development of the country will not be sustained solely within&nbsp; the Southern and Southeast limits. There is an urgent need to awaken to the potential of other regions. Priority in the public budget, tax incentives and differentiated tax policies to promote investments in the North and Northeast regions cannot remain as paternalism or any other prejudicial judgment. In fact, currently, such incentives do not even exist, at least not in the necessary proportion, form and continuity. Incentives should not be faced as&nbsp; concessions from the Federal government, but the payment for a historical debt inscribed in the social accounting of the Constitution of 1988.Fighting regional inequalities is also reducing the social drama that humiliates citizenship in the Northeast and North regions. More than 28 million Brazilians live in the Legal Amazon. The vast majority of them live in scarce conditions since the beginning of the 20th century. The more we penetrate the interior of the Amazon, the worse it gets. Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) attests that 33 cities in the region are amongst the 50 worst in the country in social development.Without a policy of economic integration of the Amazon, Brazil will not be able to achieve the goals that the Brazilian Government committed at COP 26, in Glasgow, that are: decreasing to zero the emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, with the reduction of 50% by 2030; reducing methane emissions by 30% until 2030; and to extinguish illegal deforestation by 2028.Soon there will be elections and all the presidential candidates demonstrate good intentions regarding the conservation of the Amazon biome and initiatives for a low carbon economy, but we must demand more from our future politicians and parliamentarians. The first goal is to make the Amazon a protagonist of a national project of sustainable development. Otherwise, Brazil will fade on the Southern beaches, embracing the regional inequalities.

comunidade Salvação onde passa o Rio Ipiranga - tarso sarraf  (60).jpg

Columnist

Mitigation, adaptation and business - pari passu

Architect and a civil construction entrepreneur, CEO of Instituto Amazônia+21, President of the Federation of Industries in the State of Rondônia.

01/23/2023 17:43:00

Two conferences and a hope

Architect and a civil construction entrepreneur, CEO of Instituto Amazônia+21, President of the Federation of Industries in the State of Rondônia.

12/30/2022 15:16:43

Amazon Awards

11/29/2022 17:28:34

A solution from the Amazon

10/28/2022 21:46:25

War and Ballot

09/28/2022 21:32:20

Where is the money?

08/19/2022 22:49:02

The Amazon role to the GDP

07/22/2022 23:54:55