A trade deal between the European Unionand South American trade bloc Mercosur will be voted against by Ireland if no immediate measures are taken by Brazil to stop the raging fires in its rain forests and protect the Amazon forest. This was said by the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

There is concern in Ireland about the record levels of rain forest destruction, Varadkar said in a statement, and that all of Brazil’s environmental actions in the next two years until the Mercosur deal is ratified would be closely monitored by the Irish government.

“There is no way that Ireland will vote for the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement if Brazil does not honour its environmental commitments,” Varadkar said.

The Amazon forest basin – which is also known as the lungs of the world, currently has under fire thousands of hectares of forest land. The significant increase in the number of wild fires has been blamed on deforestation by environmentalists. Groups have also accused the right-wing President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro of aiding in reducing and slacking of protection of the Amazon forest which is believed to be a crucial player in combating climate change.

The attempts by Bolsonaro to put the blame of the fires on non-government environmental organisations were “Orwellian”, Varadkar said.

If Ireland wants to block the trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur countries – Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, negotiations for which has been ongoing between the parties for more than 20 years, it would need other countries to form a blocking minority. The deal was agreed to by the two parties in June this year.

However there is pressure on the Irish government from multiple quarters to offer protection to its beef industry that is already reeling because of the uncertainties surrounding Brexit. There is fear that the beef producers from the Mercosur countries would flood the European market with cheaper beef which would be detrimental for the Irish beef industry.

However, Varadkar is just one among many voices that have come up[ in criticism and concern over the destruction of the Amazon forests because of the fires. The issue has been sought to be discussed at the G7 summit in Biarritz this weekend by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

However these calls have been rejected by Bolsonaro by stating that these are internal matters of Brazil and demanded no foreign interference.

“When we destroy elements of biodiversity, we cut the threads that hold everything together,” Farnan Ellwood of the University of the West of England told the media. “Biodiversity is nature’s protection mechanism, its insurance policy.”

“We need to stop using hardwood furniture, stop eating beef – because it’s the beef farming which is driving deforestation. The second thing is to recognize the world has changed – we simply cannot go back. But there is some good news; scientists are trying to rebuild the biodiversity. If we can put the fire out – literally and figuratively – and stop the decline, then we can try to restore some of these complex networks of biodiversity.”

(Adapted from Aljazeera.com)

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