I’m traveling to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) with a common refrain in my luggage: hope is the last thing to die. I understand the importance of catastrophic visions, even to a high level of rationality. But we have to resist, and police conferences are one of humanity’s most powerful tools of resistance.
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They do not have the capacity to solve everything, and their texts for reconciliation between more than 190 countries are full of constructive ambiguities and vague phrases necessary for collective agreement. Much of what I know about cops I learned from Alfredo Sarkis, who kept them all until his death in 2020, and I can consider him an expert on the subject.
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Serkis used many years of his life to endorse an important idea: monetizing the reduction of carbon emissions. He summed up his fight in the phrase: Less carbon equals money. These conferences of the parties, even if they do not end in resounding decisions, spread the issue, conveying it through media coverage to millions of people.
The situation is a bit negative. The United States has jumped ship and influenced other countries, such as Argentina. The Europeans have less money for the environment because they have had to increase military spending. The truth is that even before this low tide, money was hard to come by. By the most realistic calculations, it would take $3.5 trillion annually to finance adaptation and the transition to a less destructive economy. At this COP there will be a proposal worth US$1.3 trillion. It has never been possible to reach even the nearly US$100 billion per year projected in Paris in 2015.
Serkis explains in the book “Descarbonário”. Governments do not have that much money, and on top of that, they face multiple needs. The bulk of the money is in the financial system: $220 trillion.
The concept of the road map used in diplomacy emerged. It specifies the tasks and responsibilities in achieving this amount. This map predicts the conversion of poor countries’ debt into environmental investment, taxes on luxury products, and taxation of the richest people – in short, a series of measures that depend largely on political conditions.
As a casual observer, I see taxing the rich as an international ambition. But the use of these virtual funds is not consensual. In New York, protesters want to tax the rich to fund Zahran Mamdani’s platform: a rent freeze, free transportation and daycare for all.
Brazil launched the Forever Tropical Forests Fund. This is an idea that already existed and was intended to protect not only the Amazon rainforests, but also those in the Congo and Indonesia. It’s a great initiative, and we’re all rooting for it to move forward. Big initiatives receive a lot of support, but not always the money they deserve.
But if there is anything that might comfort us in this very difficult battle to keep temperatures from rising beyond 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, it is the fact that Brazil is doing everything it can and has become a world leader. We still have contradictions, but who doesn’t? We can’t go back. If it’s that hard, imagine going back. In addition to the COP, extreme events draw attention to climate. Last week, the city of Rio Bonito do Iguaçu, in Paraná, spoke out loud.
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