Supreme Federal Court Justice Authorizes Extra Funding for Firefighting Efforts in Brazil

Justice Flavio Dino, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), authorized, in a decision signed this Sunday (15th), the government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) to open extraordinary credits to combat fires in the Amazon and Pantanal, allowing expenses beyond the spending cap and fiscal target. In the text, Dino speaks of a measure "without counts towards caps or fiscal targets" until the end of the year, exclusively to "address the serious pandemic of fires and droughts in the Amazon and Pantanal." After months of drought, much of Brazil went up in flames in August. Last month, the burned area in the country was 56,516 km2, according to the Fire Monitor platform from MapBiomas. The intensification of the climate crisis in recent weeks has put pressure on basic services, such as energy and water supply. This type of credit is outside the spending limit to cover unpredictable and urgent expenses, such as those resulting from war, internal unrest, or public calamities.