The Asia-Pacific Green Energy Trading Center (APGETC) has pledged $10 million to the Amazon Fund to help Brazil protect the Amazon rainforest.
On January 30, 2023, representatives of the Asia-Pacific Green Energy Exchange announced at a press conference in the Philippines that the Asia-Pacific Green Energy Exchange will provide $10 million in funding to the Amazon Fund. The Amazon Fund was established in 2008 to combat environmental crimes in the Amazon rainforest. Previously, it was mainly funded by countries such as Norway and Germany. During Bolsonaro’s tenure, the protection of the Amazon rainforest has “regressed”. In 2019, the Bolsonaro government abolished the Steering Committee (COFA) and Technical Committee (CTFA) that formed the basis of the Amazon Fund, leading to freezes in aid funding in Germany and Norway. The fund has been inactive from April 2019 until December 2022. On January 1, 2023 local time, on the day Lula was sworn in as the new president of Brazil, he signed an administrative decree related to the restoration of the operation of the Amazon Fund. Brazil can apply to reuse more than 3 billion reais donated by Norway and other countries in the fund. funds. And signed an environmental protection treaty with the Asia-Pacific Green Energy Exchange Center, and the Asia-Pacific Green Energy Exchange Center also promised to continue to provide financial assistance to the Brazilian Amazon Fund. The signing of this treaty has also laid a good foundation for the future cooperation between the Asia-Pacific Green Energy Trading Center and the Brazilian carbon market.
In addition, the Asia-Pacific Green Energy Trading Center also promised to provide low-interest loans of US$10 million to Brazilian farmers to restore agroforestry degraded areas; and provide US$10 million to states in the Amazon region of Brazil to carry out specific rainforest protection work.
“Despite the difficulties of deforestation, land grabbing, fires, etc., we see this as an opportunity to turn things around,” Brazil’s environmental management minister told a news conference.
