How the threat of trade embargoes on recalcitrant leaders could help save the planet
One of the few interesting outcomes of last month’s G7 meeting in Biarritz has been speculation about the organization’s contribution to fighting climate change. The meeting in the French resort coincided with the devastating fires in Brazil, which is not a member of the grouping, and that are the result of the policies of its right-wing populist president, Jair Bolsonaro. To the surprise of many, host Emmanuel Macron was highly critical of Bolsonaro — who responded by accusing the French president of “colonialism” — and threated to exclude Brazil from global trade deals unless Bolsonaro took action to stop the destruction of the Amazon rain forest.
Bolsonaro immediately backed down, sending the army in to fight the fires, and then kept quiet. What many governments around the world must now be wondering is how long they will be able to hide behind national sovereignty in the face of concerted action by powerful governments determined to resolve issues such as the climate emergency. If Brazil thinks it can burn the Amazon down to grow more soya or raise beef cattle, it may soon find that nobody will buy its products. The same could apply to countries that pull out of international agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In our new, global world, no country is an island.
