By Bibiana Alcântara Garrido*
The Interstate Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Legal Amazon launched its strategy for COP30 on Wednesday (12) in Brasilia, at a closed event with governors, authorities and partners. In attendance was IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute), which has been supporting the organization since its creation in 2019.
More than 70 people attended the ceremony representing supporting institutions, a moment that highlighted the role of the Amazon states in the global climate debate. The work of these sub-national entities has gained prominence in foreign policy and has the potential to influence the Brazilian agenda.
Since COP29 in Baku, the organization has been working to define priorities for the region at COP30, in line with the guidelines of the United Nations and the COP presidency in Brazil. The themes were presented in order to guide the Consortium’s activities towards Belém. They are: land use, food systems, mining systems, adaptation, financing, energy transition, conservation and climate justice.
“The events at the Legal Amazon Hub will be aligned with the priority themes. And this year, for COP30, in addition to the space in the Blue Zone, we will have a space in the Green Zone, because we can’t stop talking to people,” announced Marcello Brito, the Consortium’s executive secretary. The entity’s strategic scope includes highlighting people from the Amazon and experts in the programming, with a view to internationalizing the debates in search of climate finance.
The common agendas among the Amazonian states involve the control of zero illegal deforestation and degradation, land-use planning, land-title regularization and the allocation of public lands. Ecological transformation was emphasized in the context of recognizing the economic potential of the living and healthy forest, but also valuing Amazonian populations.
“It’s important to say that without the Amazon there’s no way we’ll make it to the end of the century within the Paris Agreement. Science alone is not capable of bringing about the necessary change, but politicians and decision-makers, without science, will certainly take the wrong path. Therefore, joining IPAM to the Consortium’s public policy agenda is a promising equation for the climate and for people,” said André Guimarães, IPAM’s executive director, during the event.
Six years ago, IPAM supported the organization of the first international event with the Consortium, “Amazon Madrid”, during COP25 in Spain. It also organized the first “side-event” in which sub-national managers presented climate policies in the official conference area. In 2021, the Consortium was invited to the civil society space at COP26 in Glasgow, promoting the role of the Amazon in the global climate agenda.
The Consortium’s executive secretary acknowledged the partnership at the opening of the ceremony in the federal capital. “I would like to thank IPAM, in the presence of director André Guimarães, who has been an important partner for all the Amazon states. This is a job that we can call multilateral, it’s many hands,” he said.
On the occasion, guests were presented with a document containing the main results of COP29 and the Legal Amazon Hub. The executive summary connects the organization’s actions and consolidation in the international forum.
“Today, we set the stage for the leading role that the Amazon and Brazil want at COP30. Whether by example, because Brazil has the authority to do so, or by success stories in the states, valuing the living forest, payments for environmental services and agendas that reconcile production with conservation,” said Helder Barbalho, governor of the state of Pará and president of the Consortium.
Barbalho added: “May we generate strong coordination to take advantage of this opportunity. We won’t have another one on this scale in our lifetime and we can’t miss it. We can work together so that this COP can leave a legacy for the Amazon, not just in terms of environmental preservation, but in terms of transforming the way we look at the living forest. We have to work so that the ‘COP in the Amazon’ factor puts the Amazon at the forefront and, for that, we will need all the partners who have been with us so far.”
The event was attended by the governors and representatives of the Legal Amazon Gladson Cameli, governor of the state of Acre; Wilson Lima, governor of the state of Amazonas; Carlos Brandão, governor of the state of Maranhão; Mauro Mendes, governor of the state of Mato Grosso; Sérgio Gonçalves da Silva, deputy governor of the state of Rondônia; and Edilson Damião, deputy governor of the state of Roraima.
The COP30 event in Belém also brings together research efforts into climate adaptation in the state of Pará. The agreement, signed at New York Climate Week last year, provides for IPAM and the Woodwell Climate Research Center to contribute to state public policies by mapping climate risks and formulating proposals for implementing solutions.
“Sustainable development for and with the Amazon involves recognizing the region as fundamental to planetary balance, and therefore as a priority in the allocation of international financial resources for climate mitigation and adaptation. The Consortium has taken this role to cooperation bodies and IPAM continues to act as a partner, to provide more and more subsidies in favour of the bioeconomy, conservation, the energy transition and the decarbonization of the economy with equity for all,” concluded Gabriela Savian, IPAM’s Director of Public Policy.
*IPAMjournalist, bibiana.garrido@ipam.org.br
Cover photo: Consortium of the Legal Amazon brings together the results of COP29 towards COP30 in a document (Credit: Gustavo Moreno)
