Amazon Fund for rainforest received $640m in new pledges in 2023
Japan to Trump – don’t cut a deal with China
BRASILIA – Brazil’s Amazon Fund for sustainable rainforest development received $640 million in new pledged donations from developed nations last year, the environmental director of the National Development Bank (BNDES) that manages the fund, Tereza Campello, said on Thursday.
Of that total, $500 million was committed by the Biden Administration over five years, and still need approval by US Congress.
Other new donations came from Britain, Denmark and the European Union, while Norway, the original donor to the fund with $1.2 billion, added additional funding last year as did Germany, the second country to back the initiative.
Since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office a year ago, deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon has fallen to the lowest rate since 2018, after surging under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, a climate-change denier.
TOKYO - Japan, America’s closest ally in Asia, has been trying to send a message to US presidential hopeful Donald Trump: don’t try to strike any deal with China that could upend years of collective efforts to rein in Beijing and risk the region’s fragile peace.
Tokyo has stepped up attempts to engage with people close to Mr Trump in recent weeks, as the 77-year-old’s victories in Republican primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire have seen him emerge in some polls as the frontrunner in November’s presidential election.
The outreach - detailed in interviews with six Japanese officials, much of it previously unreported - comes as Prime Minister Fumio Kishida prepares for an April state visit to the US at President Joe Biden’s invitation.