Greta Thunberg has branded Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro a failure over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which this week has seen a record surge in deaths in the country, as an alliance of environmental groups sued his administration for endangering the climate and Amazon rainforest.

On a video call today, the teenage activist said: ”The Bolsonaro government has definitely failed in tackling the coronavirus pandemic as many other governments have also done.”

On Thursday, Brazil’s Health Ministry reported 1,437 deaths from the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to more than 34,000 and surpassing Italy to become the country with the third-most deaths worldwide.

Ms Thunberg was speaking at the launch of a crowdfunding campaign for medical supplies and telemedicine services for people in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, where communities have been devastated by the pandemic due to a dearth of health services.

The climate campaigner spoke along with fellow activists from the Fridays for Future movement in Brazil who have set up a fund with the Sustainable Amazonas Foundation.

Governments around the world, including Brazil, have “failed to save lives and because of that we have seen many deaths that could have been prevented,” Thunberg told those who joined the call.

Bolsonaro has fiercely criticised measures to shut down non-essential businesses and keep residents indoors to slow the spread of Covid-19, saying the economic damage being done is worse than the health risk itself.

World Environment Day also saw three separate lawsuits filed by an alliance of NGOs, the Brazilian Association of Public Prosecutors and four opposition political parties against Bolsonaro's administration, alleging crimes against the climate and the Amazon rainforest.

The lawsuits allege that Environment Minister Ricardo Salles and his aide Eduardo Bim, head of Brazil’s environmental protection agency (Ibama), committed illegal acts and omissions by allowing un-inspected timber exports and by freezing Brazil’s two biggest climate-related funds.

In a statement today, the group said that "the government has put the Amazon forest and the global climate in jeopardy out of ideology, and also has willingly forgone its law enforcement role by giving in to demands of the timber sector against their own experts’ advise [sic]".

The Press Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Independent.

Reuters contributed to this report

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