ADVISORY: Brazilian Presidential Candidate Marina Silva in Washington April 24-26 to Discuss Climate Change with Obama Administration, Address Earth Day Commemoration Sunday on National Mall

Contact:
Barbara Bramble, bramble@nwf.org, 202-797-6601
Steve Schwartzman, sschwartzman@edf.org, 202-746-9201
Alfredo Sirkis, +55-21-81299925

(WASHINGTON, April 22) – Brazilian presidential candidate Marina Silva will meet with Obama administration officials this week to discuss climate change and new avenues for U.S.-Brazil cooperation. She also will address Washington’s Earth Day commemoration Sunday* on the National Mall.

Sen. Silva, the presidential candidate of Brazil’s Green Party and a current senator, will discuss Brazil’s successes in slowing Amazon deforestation and establishing national emissions reduction targets in meetings with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Nancy Sutley, who heads the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Sen. Silva, who grew up in a remote village of rubber tappers in the western Amazon, has made climate change an integral part of Brazil’s presidential campaign platforms, and has pressed the Brazilian delegation to the United Nationals Framework Convention on Climate Change to take a leading role in the global negotiations.

Sen. Silva learned to read at 16, worked her way to a post-graduate degree, and became a labor organizer alongside the famed Amazon environmental champion Chico Mendes. She was elected to the city council in the capitol of Acre State, won a state representative seat, and in 1994 become the youngest member ever elected to the national Senate.

She was appointed Environment Minister in 2003 and served in the Lula Administration until 2008, implementing unprecedented environmental protection programs, including the first serious enforcement of laws curbing deforestation. Sen. Silva has pressured the government to make commitments to reduce deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in Brazil’s strong announcements before and during the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen last December.

*Sen. Silva will be speaking between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. on the Earth Day stage, on the National Mall at 8th St. facing the Washington Monument.

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Just added: BREAKFAST BRIEFING, Monday, April 26, 9 a.m.

Senator Marina Silva will discuss her Earth Day visit, climate change, and meetings with Obama Administration officials. Location: National Wildlife Federation, 901 E Street, NW, # 400. Contact: Barbara Bramble, 202 262 8236, bramble@nwf.org; Alfredo Sirkis, 202 509 5874, sirkis@alternex.com.br.