Commentary:
“The relationship between social inequality and democracy, climate change, employment and artificial intelligence should be fundamental issues in the debate on how to “better rebuild” society in the post-pandemic period, both nationally and internationally. Claudia Melin Mcleod is an expert in the effects of globalization and the increase in social inequality and populism, defending the need to seek solutions to protect jobs and calling attention to the role of indigenous peoples in mitigating climate change.” (desdeelbalcon.com.ar)
We talk to Claudia Melim-Mcleod about her experience in global governance, sustainability and climate change.
- What is the mission of RainForest Foundation?
Rainforest Foundation was created by British pop star sting. He travelled to the Amazon and discovered the Indians did not have a right to land, there were several invasions and basically the forest was being destroyed by road construction and mine exploration which poisoned the land. Sting took that cause to heart and created the Rain Forest Foundation. Its objective is to protect rainforests worldwide and to promote the rights of indigenous people. It was founded in the 1980’s and operates in 8 different rainforest countries: Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myamar, Papua New Ghinea and Indonesia.
- Could you explain what is sustainable finance?
Sustainable finance are investments that do not contribute to environmental degradation. When we talk about sustainable finance we are talking about banks giving money to companies who are not contributing to rainforest destruction or climate change or anything that can potentially harm the environment. So sustainable finance is also another term for responsible finance or investment. It means that financial operations take into account the purpose of that investment or credit.
- How does sustainable Finance work in practical terms?
A UK based company that produces hamburgers with imported meat could source their product from Brazil or another country. Many times the meat comes from areas where there was a rainforest that was destroyed illegally to make room for cows for meat production. This would be Drive Deforestation, a key concept in my work. This kind of deforestation is financed by banks and investors with institutional shareholders. Sustainable finance advocated for investments that take into account the environment so that before approving a loan for the UK based Burger company, banks are encouraged to ask: where does this meat come from? Is this cattle coming from a rainforest area that was destroyed? We encourage bank and investors to ask the right questions so that the money that could finance drivers of deforestation, a lot of it in agriculture and mining, is not given to companies that disrespect the environment or indigenous rights. MY job is to make sure that before investing, buying stocks or giving loans financers need to ask the right questions and stay away from companies that harm the rainforest or indigenous people.
- Does Rain Forest Foundation advocate against climate change?
Our mandate is limited to RainForests but this is connected to climate because up to 15% to 27% of climate change comes from land use change which is agriculture, infrastructure construction and activities that require clearing forests and produce carbon emissions. If we cut the trees and take out the roots of old forests, the carbon goes into the atmosphere so this is why deforestation is one of the leading causes of climate change. By working with banks and investors to reduce deforestation I am also working to reduce climate change.
- What will be the key issues for development in the post pandemic world?
This will depend on the country and the resources that it has. The challenge will be “Building back better”, the economy is destroyed, people have no jobs, people have no income. How will we build back the economy? For the development, a key challenge is to understand how to rebuild the economy avoiding the mistakes of the past. If we are going to inject money in the economy by creating more jobs, the key issue would be to create the right jobs. Are we going to invest in coal factories or are we going to invest in solar panel factories that are good for the environment? In the post pandemic world the challenge will be to rebuild choosing green options that are not going to cause the kind of problems that we are suffering from. In a sense, the pandemic is a chance to stop and think about our growth model and re-think the way we are doing things. For example we could think about education. How is a country educating its people? What is the technology we are using? Does everyone really need to take a bus or car to go to school everyday? We could re-think food security or agriculture. Do we really need to eat so much meat? Could we invest in new ways of food production? Covid is both a challenge and an opportunity for governments and people to re-think economic growth in every single country.
- In your view will the UK play a larger role in world development after Brexit?
In the UK before Brexit, international development and foreign office were two different departments in the government. There was DFID (department for international development) and Foreign Common Wealth Office. These two departments were merged so now developments will be much more linked to Foreign Policy than before because it will be led by the same department. How the UK choses to use its foreign policy to influence development really remains to be seen once the merge is completed. One advantage of having an independent department for international development is that the department could address issues like global poverty or refugee crisis independently looking at objective criteria and statistics such as the poverty index in the world or refugee flux each year… if development becomes tied to the foreign office agenda, the criteria for development funding could also become political and be impacted by factors such as trade issues or taxation.
- Could you describe your experience at London School of Economics?
The best part is participating in a global community. Heads of state come in to give talks, these are rare opportunities offered by very few institutions. When I was there, I had the chance to participate in talks with the President of Brazil and the prime minister of Bangladesh. I got a lot of exposure to world leaders and the best and the brightest researchers. There was no dogma and LSE promoted intellectual diversity, scholars were allowed to have different views on one same subject. We lived in an environment of intellectual freedom that rewarded effort an good ideas.
Resources:
https://rainforestfoundation.org/
