Climate change to top agenda as Macron vistis Brazil

  • 6 months ago

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Transcript
00:00 Back to Rio now where Emmanuel Macron is set to continue his trip in Brazil. He'll be landing
00:05 today. Let's bring in Tim Vickery who's in Rio as well. Excuse me, Tim, climate is really going
00:12 to be top of the agenda for President Macron's trip in Brazil. Tell us about that.
00:15 It is, yes. He's about to land in the northern city of Belém, inside the Amazon rainforest,
00:24 where next year the COPPA30 climate conference will be held. So ecology here is very much the
00:30 focus. Macron will be meeting indigenous leaders. He'll be presenting a prominent one with the
00:35 Legion of Honour for services to protecting the rainforest. He'll be visiting a chocolate
00:40 factory which is seen as a symbol of sustainable development, meeting President Lula to discuss
00:46 methods of improving cooperation between French and Brazilian authorities in terms of cracking
00:52 down on illegal mining. The message here is that France is a country of the Amazon as well. French
00:58 Guyana has nearly one and a half percent of the forest and there's room for partnership
01:05 and also for development. Macron is stressing the need both to protect the rainforest
01:10 and to develop it. They're not incompatible, he says. One is needed to safeguard the future of
01:15 the planet. The other is needed to stall the rise of the far right. After Belém,
01:21 he comes down near Rio for a launch of a submarine, which is a joint French-Brazilian project.
01:27 Then briefly to São Paulo to meet with members of the French community and business leaders.
01:33 Macron is being accompanied by 140 French business leaders. And then on to Brasilia
01:39 on Thursday for the most difficult part here, because it's a state visit with President Lula.
01:45 And here come the awkward topics. The divergent positions of France and Brazil on Gaza,
01:52 on Ukraine and the elephant in the room. This perennially stalled trade deal between the
01:57 European Union and Mercosur, where the obstacle is France. France say their objections are on
02:03 ecological grounds. President Lula of Brazil thinks that this is more to do with protecting
02:08 French farmers. The tone from the Elysée in Paris is very positive. They're saying that this is the
02:14 relaunching of bilateral relations and a strategic partnership between France and Brazil after the
02:20 difficult times of Bolsonaro. But there will be tough times, difficult moments in those talks on

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