Brazil’s foreign minister says climate change is a 'Marxist plot'

Brazil’s new foreign minister believes climate change is a Marxist tactic to instil fear, stifle the economic growth of western countries, and benefit China.

The appointment of Ernesto Araújo, who has been named by president-elect Jair Bolsonaro as the country’s top diplomat, will be a major cause for concern for those already alarmed at the extent of global climate collapse.

Brazil’s outgoing government has already been heavily criticised for “inviting deforestation”, in the Amazon – the world’s largest and most biodiverse rainforest, which is vital for soaking up carbon emissions.

But under Mr Araújo, it appears efforts to balance environmental protection and economic development may tilt further towards business interests.

Writing on his blog during Mr Bolsonaro’s election campaign last month, in a post titled “Hijack and pervert”, Mr Araújo described climate science as a “dogma” which ignored “evidence” showing the opposite of rising temperatures and greater concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere.

“The left has sequestered the environmental cause and perverted it to the point of paroxysm over the last 20 years with the ideology of climate change, climate change,” he wrote.

“The climate [scientists] gathered some data suggesting a correlation between rising temperatures with increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, ignored data suggesting the opposite, and created a “scientific” dogma that no one else can contest on pain of being excommunicated from good society.”

He added: “This dogma has served to justify an increase in the regulatory power of states over the economy and power of international institutions over national states and their populations, as well as to stifle economic growth in democratic capitalist countries and foster China's growth.”

Mr Araújo’s views closely echo those of Donald Trump, who has previously called climate change a “hoax” and a “con-job” which was “created by the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive”.

The 51-year-old, whose blog “Metapolitics” has the tagline “against globalism”, frequently rails against Marxism in his posts, attacks abortion, feminism, defends Catholicism and claims socialists are trying to criminalise history, Disney films, justice, WhatsApp, heterosexual sex, sport, jokes and humour.

He describes Brazil’s Worker’s Party, known as the PT, and against whom Mr Bolsonaro was campaigning, as a “Totalitarian Project or Tyranny Program”.

In another post he wrote: “Marxist ‘utopia’ aims to eliminate all contradictions of human life, creating communist society and promoting the end of history. Yes, the end of history is a Marxist goal,” the blog says in relation to Francis Fukuyama’s book “The End of History”, which states that liberal democracy will emerge as the triumphant form of governance.

On Twitter announcing his new minister, Mr Bolsonaro called Mr Araújo a “brilliant intellectual”.

The appointment will mark a stark change in Brazil’s efforts to combat climate change. The country was the host of the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro which laid the foundations of international efforts to recognise and combat man-made climate change.

Brazilian diplomats were also instrumental in forging the Paris Agreement in 2015.

The country is in line to host next year’s UN climate talks. Mr Bolsonaro has given no indication whether his administration will go ahead with the summit.