Marina Silva wants to declare a climate emergency in risk areas; Lula and Tarcisio announce measures to aid São Paulo’s coast

In response to the largest storm ever recorded in Brazil on the northern coast of São Paulo state, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, and the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovations, Luciana Santos, proposed on Tuesday (21) to design an emergency plan to adapt to extreme weather events in 1,038 municipalities, which are home to 57% of the country’s population. The measure aims to facilitate access to resources for infrastructure works, such as slope containment and drainage, recovery of riparian forests, creation of civil defense and education plans for climate risk and resettlement of residents in vulnerable areas.

Before this, the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) had already announced on Monday (20) a series of actions to reduce the impacts on the population of the northern coast of São Paulo, victim of the lack of prevention and hit by the biggest storm in Brazil’s history.

Lula flew over areas devastated by landslides and flooding. He also met with the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos), and the mayor of São Sebastião, Felipe Augusto (PSDB), and made the federal government’s structure available to mitigate the damage. Several ministers participated in the audience, including the Minister of Ports and Airports, Márcio França (PSB), who announced R$ 2 million to the Government of São Paulo and the city halls of the northern coast cities, including Bertioga, can help the victims. Lula asked for total priority to the climate emergency, and articulated joint actions between the Ministries of Social Development, Finance, Planning, Transportation and Health. On the 21st, Lula’s government transferred R$ 7 million to São Sebastião municipalitie and the resources will be used to buy food baskets, cleaning kits, personal hygiene, mattresses and fuel. More than 73,8 thousand people will be assisted.

The São Paulo state government, for its part, announced on the 23rd that it will install sirens in the region, in places where there is risk of landslides and flooding. The emergency measure, however, is seen with caution by specialists. They say that the adoption of the equipment needs to occur in conjunction with a series of actions, such as training the population, developing escape routes and conducting recurrent drills.