Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is in Osaka, Japan, for the G20 summit, rebuffed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who expressed concern about Brazil's environmental policy and said the country's situation is dramatic. For Bolsonaro, Brazilians "have an example to give to Germany about the environment. Their industry is still fossil. It's part of coal. Not ours. They have to learn a lot from us".
According to the journalist Glenn Greenwald, "German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she views what is taking place in Brazil under Bolsonaro with great concern - as 'dramatic'- due to the threats he poses both to basic human rights and the environment".
The environmental policy of the Bolsonaro government should be the biggest drag on Brazil during the G20 meeting in Japan. It is not only Germany that is pressing Brazil in relation to the environmental policies of the Bolsonaro government. The French government, for example, has been one of the toughest in the talks on the trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union. The main French argument is the fact that Brazil does not seem committed to the Paris Agreement – by which nations have committed themselves to meet pollution reduction targets.
To make matters worse, in an interview with BBC News Brazil, Brazil's Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said that the Brazilian government will insist on the message that it is necessary to explore the economic possibilities of the Amazon, diversifying the activities inside and around the Amazon Rainforest.
For most environmentalists, the minister's speech was received as more deforestation and damage to the Amazon Rainforest.
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