(UTV|COLOMBO) – The Brazilian government has said it will reject an offer of aid from G7 countries to help tackle fires in the Amazon rainforest.
French President Emmanuel Macron – who hosted a G7 summit that ended on Monday – said $22m (£18m) would be released.
But Brazilian ministers say the money is not needed and accuse foreign powers of wanting control of the Amazon.
Satellite data shows fires – mostly in the Amazon – are burning at record levels.
Commenting on the G7 offer of aid, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, told the Globo news website: “Thanks, but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe.
“Macron cannot even avoid a predictable fire in a church that is part of the world’s heritage, and he wants to give us lessons for our country?” Mr Lorenzoni added, in a reference to the fire that hit Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris in April.
Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo says there are already mechanisms under the auspices of the UN climate convention to fight deforestation.
“Efforts of some political currents to extrapolate real environmental issues into a fabricated ‘crisis’ as a pretext for introducing mechanisms for external control of the Amazon are very evident,” he added in a tweet. (BBC)
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