By Canadian Press

G7 leaders should step up own climate plans to help the Amazon, Greenpeace says

Aug 23, 2019 | 12:40 PM

OTTAWA — Greenpeace officials in Canada and abroad say G7 leaders wanting to help stop the Amazon rainforest from burning need to look at their own backyards as the place to start.

A record number of fires burning in the rainforest in Brazil this month is raising serious concerns about the planet’s health.

About one-fifth of the world’s oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest, which is also home to more than half of Earth’s 10 million species of plants, insects and animals, and one-fifth of its fresh water.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on his way to France for the G7 leaders’ summit where he is joining French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in calling for an emergency discussion about the fires.

Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan says the leaders can’t use the Amazon fires to distract from their own failures to do enough to reduce climate change at home.

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A report card issued this week by Climate Action Network International said the G7 countries are all lagging on acting to cut their own emissions.

The Canadian Press