Emily Thornberry – 2021 Comments on Boris Johnson and Amazon Environmental Crisis

The comments made by Emily Thornberry, the Shadow International Trade Secretary, on 15 July 2021.

What is happening to the Amazon rainforest is one of the worst man-made tragedies in history, and our own Prime Minister is one of the guilty men. He refused to support EU action in response to the Amazon fires in August 2019, and was thanked by the Bolsonaro government for doing so.

While the EU are now finally reconsidering their trade deal with Brazil out of concern for the Amazon, Boris Johnson is ploughing ahead with Britain’s negotiations regardless. And while Labour has proposed a due diligence law that would apply to all damaging deforestation, the Tory version only requires companies to comply with the local rules set by governments like Bolsonaro’s.

We will never stop and reverse the planet-destroying damage being done by men like Bolsonaro until governments like ours stand up to him, but under Boris Johnson, we are doing the opposite, standing by while he burns the Amazon with impunity.