PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
AMAZON FIRES (3 September 2019)

That this House notes with deep concern the over 90,000 fires recorded in Brazil so far this year, with burning detected inside indigenous lands and nature reserves; notes that the Amazon rainforest is home to over 20 million people including 1 million indigenous people, 10 per cent of the Earth's biodiversity and the world's largest carbon sink; understands fires have been set deliberately; is concerned that those fires follow President Jair Bolsonaro's weakening of Brazil’s environment agency and a desire to open up more of the Amazon for mining, logging and farming; further notes warnings from scientists that loss of tree cover in the Amazon rainforest could tip the region towards a drier ecosystem, storing vastly less carbon; notes that the Government wants to pursue a closer trading relationship with Brazil; supports proposals from Ireland and France to veto the EU-Mercosur trade deal unless Brazil honours its environmental commitments; further supports calls from indigenous people in Brazil for a boycott of goods involved in the burning and destruction of indigenous lands; urges the Government to oppose the EU-Mercosur trade deal which will only intensify the exploitation of the Amazon region, to suspend on-going trade talks and its £20 million trade facilitation programme with Brazil until it protects the Amazon and its people; and to make any future trade deals with Brazil and other countries contingent on progress under the Paris Agreement and the enforcement of high environmental standards and human rights.

Sponsored by:
Caroline Lucas (Green Party)