Ambassador Reinaldo Salgado, Consul General of Brazil in Chicago, spoke to UChicago students on November 3 to discuss the importance of the upcoming COP30 climate conferences in Belém, Brazil.
The event, hosted by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, International House, and Harris Energy & Environmental Association, marked the final event in the Institute’s COP30 programming before the student delegation to Belém begins November 12.
In conversation with Becca Ward, Chief of Staff for the Institute, Ambassador Salgado gave an insider’s perspective on international climate negotiations, Brazil’s energy transition and conservation efforts, and the important outcomes for this year’s COP.
One through line of the talk was the tension between environmental conservation and economic development, particularly in the Amazon rainforest. In addition to its ecological importance, the Amazon is home to more than 30 million people seeking jobs and economic growth, Salgado said. “We have to talk about preservation and also social prosperity,” he said.
Forest conservation will be top of mind at COP30 due to its setting in Belém, a city in the Amazon rainforest. Salgado mentioned the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a fund for tropical forest conservation to be introduced at COP30. TFFF would provide funding to tropical forest countries based on acreage of forests conserved.
Funding for developing countries will be a key item to look for at COP30 and beyond, Salgado said. In addition to funds for preservation like TFFF, developing countries need support financing their clean energy transition and climate adaptation projects.
Salgado also emphasized the importance of economic feasibility for clean energy sources as countries look to grow sustainably. Though Salgado was happy to see the improved affordability of wind and solar energy, he expressed the difficulties of using these sources to power a developing country due to their intermittent nature. While electrification continues, Salgado expressed optimism for the use of biofuels like ethanol, which Brazil has embraced in recent years.
Ambassador Salgado also explored the balance of “bridging global ambition with local realities.” The effort to mitigate emissions is global: “Every emission in the US is the same as an emission in Brazil,” Salgado said. But adaptation efforts, an increasingly important part of the climate conversation, must be differentiated to suit each region’s threats and individual environment.
Salgado also shared his career journey and gave his perspective on international climate collaboration, having represented Brazil on the global climate stage. He explained the different levels of climate negotiations, from a country’s internal debates over setting their national emissions goal, or NDC, to international debates on plans like the Paris Agreement.
In an open Q&A, Ambassador Salgado encouraged students to broaden their horizons and consider the many disciplines that contribute to taking on the climate challenge. “You have to be hopeful and do your part,” he shared.
Featuring
Ambassador Reinaldo Salgado
Consul General of Brazil in Chicago
Ambassador Salgado is a seasoned negotiator with extensive experience in bilateral, regional and multilateral negotiations. He headed the Brazilian delegations at the inter-sessional meetings of the Subsidiary Bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and at the intersessional meetings of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement, in 2017 and 2018. From 2016 to 2018, Ambassador Salgado was the Deputy Chief Negotiator for Brazil at the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the UNFCCC as well as conferences related to the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. During the same period, he chaired the Political Commission of the 8th World Water Forum. He was a member of the Board of the Green Climate Fund in 2019.