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Amazon: Greenpeace deploys giant banner to European Commission

2020-09-11T09:58:53.465Z


" The Amazon is burning, Europe guilty ": activists from the environmental NGO Greenpeace deployed a giant banner on Friday morning on the facade of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels to denounce what they see as a complicity of the 'EU in the destruction of the Amazon. Read also: Greenpeace takes action in front of the Elysee Palace to denounce deforestation in the Amazon The bann


"

The Amazon is burning, Europe guilty

": activists from the environmental NGO Greenpeace deployed a giant banner on Friday morning on the facade of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels to denounce what they see as a complicity of the 'EU in the destruction of the Amazon.

Read also: Greenpeace takes action in front of the Elysee Palace to denounce deforestation in the Amazon

The banner represents in trompe-l'oeil a gap in the building through which one glimpses a tropical forest in flame.

Smoke bombs provided the necessary smoke.

The fires in the Amazon are far away, but Europe is throwing oil on the flames: by buying soybeans and other products from deforested areas, Europe is complicit in the ongoing destruction in the Amazon and in 'other ecosystems

,' said Sini Eräjää, activist for Greenpeace.

"

Europeans must be able to shop knowing that no item in their supermarket has contributed to forest fires or human rights violations, we need strong European law

," he said. she insisted in a statement.

Europe "responsible" according to Greenpeace

According to Greenpeace, through its imports of beef, soy, palm oil, coffee and cocoa, the EU is "

responsible for more than 10% of the world's deforestation

".

Companies made voluntary commitments a decade ago to end deforestation in their supply chains.

But that did not work, the products remain imported in Europe with very few controls

”, explained to AFP Sébastien Snoeck, activist of Greepeace present before the Commission.

According to him, "

we cannot count

" on the regime of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to protect the largest tropical forest in the world, where fires increased by 28% in July 2020, compared to July 2019.

Read also: Brazil: environmental NGOs represent a "cancer" according to Bolsonaro

The vast trade agreement not yet ratified between the EU and the South American countries of Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) worries: it would lead to the increased opening of European markets to South American meat while livestock farming is responsible for 80% of deforestation in the Amazon, according to the WWF organization.

A growing number of member states have expressed their strong reluctance to validate this agreement, faced with the ecological threat in Brazil, "

a good thing

" according to Greenpeace.

But while the European Commission has just launched a public consultation to refine its strategy against deforestation, "

it is good to remind it that the voluntary commitments have not worked and that very concrete action must be taken

", argued Sébastien. Snoeck.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-09-11

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