Civil society has a fundamental role to play in stopping the current unsustainable model of consumption and exploitation
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to challenge Brazil and the world in several areas. In the health sector, with the heavy pain of daily deaths; in the social sector, with a dramatic scenario of unemployment and widening inequalities; and, in the economy, with a global slowdown and worsening of the Brazilian crisis.
Meeting the needs of the moment, which are many, must also be associated with a vision of the future, as every crisis has a beginning, middle and end.
Among the main discussions on reconstruction, the search for sustainable production and the use of renewable products stands out. The model used until now has become unsustainable. The international organization Global Footprint Network calculates the moment when the consumption of natural resources exceeds the volume that the planet is capable of renewing. This year, that day was August 20.
The global consumer has already demanded product traceability, reinforcing this green agenda.
We are seeing demonstrations by financial institutions demanding environmental and social standards. Major global investment funds have signaled concern about projects with high CO₂ emissions. The Brazilian Stock Exchange has created a new sustainable index in partnership with S&P Dow Jones.
In politics, the Green Deal, agreed upon by the European Union, proposes reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. In the United States, the election highlights the issue as Joe Biden's government platform.
In this scenario, the Amazon came under the spotlight of the World Economic Forum at the beginning of the year and the UN General Assembly, which is taking place this week.
In contrast, Brazil is suffering from serious impacts on its image due to illegal activities in the world's largest tropical forest, such as deforestation, burning, land grabbing and mining.
The Brazilian private sector, organized society, academia and financial sector are coming together to contribute to the search for effective solutions to the challenges that lie ahead. The strategy is to engage in dialogue to implement a long-term national environmental policy.
The Business Movement is an unprecedented initiative coordinated by the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development, which brings together more than 80 CEOs of companies operating in Brazil who are concerned about the Amazon issue and are willing to engage in dialogue to find solutions. We have important partners in the articulation of this movement, such as Ibá, Abag, Abiove and the Brazil Network of the United Nations Global Compact.
With the same goals, the Brazil Climate, Forests and Agriculture Coalition, formed by more than 200 representatives from agribusiness, the financial sector, civil society and academia, also presented strategic actions. The mobilization even includes a letter from former Finance Ministers and former presidents of the Central Bank, such as Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Pedro Malan, Joaquim Levy, Nelson Barbosa, Arminio Fraga and Persio Arida, reinforcing that economic recovery needs to connect environmental preservation and social responsibility.
The focus of any sustainable recovery plan is on the 25 million Brazilians who live in the Amazon, the majority of whom live below the poverty line and have precarious infrastructure. Thus, the forest is one of the paths to socioeconomic growth.
The standing forest already generates wealth for the country through ecosystem services, such as the absorption of CO₂ —a potential source of income for Brazil— and rainfall patterns, which are largely responsible for the success of Brazilian agribusiness, with up to three harvests per year.
The environment, which was no longer a secondary issue, became imperative for public policies, boosted a new way of doing business and gave new dynamics to the conscious and sustainable consumer.
Brazil can deliver solutions for this consumer and for the bioeconomy, in addition to expanding jobs within a renewable and sustainable chain, which improve our quality of life today and enable other generations to have good experiences on a healthy planet.
Source: SP Newspaper
