Carbon emissions double in the Amazon under Bolsonaro “mainly because of dismantling,” says study

A group of Brazilian researchers linked to INPE(National Institute for Space Research) has submitted a paper to the scientific journal Nature that claims carbon emissions doubled under Bolsonaro, specifically between 2019 and 2020, when compared to 2010 to 2018. The main reason for the emissions was human action driven by the dismantling of environmental enforcement and governance, says the study, which assessed the loss of the ability of the world’s largest tropical forest to act as a carbon sink and mitigate the effects of climate change.

According to the research, led by chemist Luciana Gatti, the effect was similar to the damage caused in 2010 and 2015/16 by El Niño, a climate phenomenon that makes the Amazon drier and more flammable. In 2019, the increase in emissions was of 89%. In 2020, 122%. More recent data show that deforestation records continued to be broken in 2021 and 2022, possibly worsening this scenario.