President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday night that the ongoing fires in the Amazon were an "international crisis" and made an appointment to the G7 members to "talk about this emergency" at the summit in Biarritz this weekend.
See you at G7
"Our house burns, literally, the Amazon, the lung of our planet that produces 20% of our oxygen, is on fire, it's an international crisis G7 members, see you in two days to talk about this emergency ", wrote the head of state on Twitter, referring in particular to the sentence pronounced in 2002 by his predecessor Jacques Chirac:" Our house burns and we look elsewhere ".
Emmanuel Macron, who tweeted his message in French and English, joins UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said on Thursday he was "deeply concerned" by the fires in Amazonia, after the denunciation by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro of an "environmental psychosis" about these fires.
2,500 new fire starts
While the situation in the largest tropical forest on the planet was very difficult to assess, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reported nearly 2,500 new fire starts in just 48 hours in whole of Brazil.
According to the INPE, 75,336 forest fires were recorded in the country from January to 21 August, 84% more than in the same period last year. According to an NGO collective, 54% of these fires are in the Amazon. Emmanuel Macron meets Saturday in Biarritz G7 leaders for a summit under the theme of "the fight against inequality" which must address the major diplomatic issues of the moment but also the climate emergency.