“We are entering a global green economy. Governments, and also private investors, recognize that the goals of environmental and climate protection do not represent an obstacle, but an important element for a prosperous development of the economy and for social peace. The strategies for the green recovery in Germany and the European Union are good examples of this,” said Heiko Thoms, the German ambassador in Brazil, at the opening of the first edition this year of the Sustainable Future Dialogues. The theme was “Green New Deal: A new Green Deal for the world and Brazil”.

Deputy Alessandro Molon provided details of the proposal for Brazil and the main objectives. According to him, for the Brazilian economy to become neutral in carbon emissions, an amount of R$ 509 billion per year will be required (equivalent to 6.9% of the GDP in 2019). With this, he explains, it would be possible to create 9.5 million jobs, of which 5.4 million would be in formal occupations, with an average salary of R$ 26,600 per year. There are five thematic areas: infrastructure, cities, land use and forests, fair and sustainable economic transition and political and normative changes.

The coordinator of the team of economists from UFRJ that created the Green New Deal Brazil program, professor Carlos Eduardo Young, stressed that there is no possibility of considering economic growth dissociated from the social and environmental process, remembering, for example, climate disasters. “The cost of climate disasters, only with regard to already estimated floods, inundations and landslides, ranges from tens of billions of reais rising to hundreds of billions of reais,” he adds.

Watch the full event here. It was mediated by Marina Marçal, coordinator of the iCS Climate Policy portfolio, and opened by Teresa Liporace, director of Programs at the Institute. There are also reports in Valor, Metrópoles and CNN Brasil.