Brazil rejects G7 $20m aid offer to tackle Amazon fires
Brazil said it would reject an offer of $20m in aid to tackle the fires raging in the Amazon rainforest, and accused France of acting like a colonial power.
The G7 leaders' summit in the upmarket French coastal town of Biarritz concluded on Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron saying the money would fund primarily fire-fighting planes.
Brazilian environment minister Ricardo Salles had earlier told reporters the country welcomed the funding but after a meeting between President Jair Bolsonaro and his ministers the government backtracked.
Bolsonaro's chief of staff Onyx Lorenzoni spurned the offer and took a swipe at European leaders for even discussing the issue at the summit.
"Thanks, but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,” he told the , Globo news website in remarks that were later confirmed by the government.
"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?" Lorenzoni said, in a barb about the fire that hit Paris's Notre-Dame cathedral in April.
“Brazil is a democratic, free nation that never had colonialist and imperialist practices, as perhaps is the objective of the Frenchman Macron.”
Macron hit back on Monday night in an interview on French television.
“We respect your sovereignty. It’s your country,” Macron said. But the trees in the Amazon are “the lungs of the planet”, he added.
“The Amazon forest is a subject for the whole planet. We can help you reforest. We can find the means for your economic development that respects the natural balance. But we cannot allow you to destroy everything.”