G-7 countries to fund over $20M for Amazon fires

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - French President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday that G-7 countries agreed to provide over $20 million funding to Amazonian countries for the ongoing rainforest fires which reduce biodiversity and speed global warming.

"Immediately, we will offer financial support of at least €20 million [$22.2 million] to the Amazonian countries that will let us know their needs," Macron said in a press conference along with Chile's president at G-7 summit, which France is hosting in the town of Biarritz.

Noting that France will also offer military support to the region on Monday, he said an initiative for the Amazon will be officially launched at the UN General Assembly next month.

"The Amazon absorbs 14% of global CO2 [carbondioxide]. Losing the first lungs of the planet is a global problem. No country can say that it's about the only one," the French president also tweeted.

Therefore G-7 is mobilizing to respond to the crisis, he added.

The decision came after Macron's suggestion on Thursday to discuss the issue during the G-7 summit.

But Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro hit back, accusing Macron of "a misplaced colonialist mindset".

"I regret that President Macron seeks to instrumentalize an internal issue of Brazil and other Amazonian countries for personal political gains," he tweeted.

Even though Bolsonaro accused environmental groups of starting the wildfires, but gave no evidence, the Amazon Environmental Research Institute said the growing number of fires is related to deforestation.

Brazil's National Institute for Space Research underlined that the number of wildfires in the country had risen 83% from to the previous year.