declaring the fires an international crisis. Angela Merkel and Boris Johnson backed the French president’s calls for the issue to be discussed at this weekend’s G7 summit, while Paris and Dublin also vowed to block an EU trade deal with Brazil and its neighbours over the crisis. Conservationists say Mr Bolsonaro has encouraged the setting of fires as part of his
Global leaders united yesterday in condemnation of Brazil’s handling of the fires sweeping the Amazon rainforest. The country’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has been criticised for his response to the blazes that scientists say are man-made, with Emmanuel Macron
pro-business programme. Brazil’s space research centre has detected 72,843 fires in the Amazon so far this year – an 84 per cent rise on last year, when Mr Bolsonaro was elected. As the world’s largest rainforest, it is a key part of the fight against climate change. But scientists warned that the burning could reach a tipping point from which no return is possible.