Brazil’s environment minister has demanded that richer countries provide the US$100 billion annual funding agreed upon to help developing countries switch to clean energy and handle the impact of climate change. “The $100 billion target has not been met,” Joaquim Leite said in a speech in Glasgow Wednesday. “And this amount is no longer enough for the world to build a new green economy with a responsible transition.” This demand came after the United States Trasnportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg responded to the bogus claim that God was responsible for climate change and saying it was not for people to deal with. This claim came from The Nature Conservancy climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe, an evangelical Christian who is married to a pastor. Buttigieg responded with “climate talks have an obligation to people, not just the planet, to stop those sinful choices of humankind, that cause climate change”.
The reason I picked this article was because of the demands of the Brazilian enviornment minister. Although the demands were in good faith, the irony is that Brazil is responsible for 3% of the global greenhouse gas emmissions. Brazil is not an example for enviornmental change. The enviornment minister was met with criticism after his demands of other countries. The long lasting effects could be a decline in international relations with the country of Brazil because of the enviornment minister demanding money from other countries when the country of Brazil has a long way to go to even be under the global average of emmissions.
This relates to international relations class because as we discussed in class, national interest doesnt always allign with International Relations. In this example we can clearly see how the national interest of a country doesnt allign with the enviornmental agreements they had settled on years prior. Due to the new large sum of money that is owed. This is leading to a decline in the relations with other countries as some arent paying and the ones who are, are getting frustrated with the others who agreed to pay.