Amazon fires: PM asked by Climate Change Minister to offer NZ firefighters

Climate Change Minister James Shaw is critical of Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro, and said he was "trashing not just the Brazilian environment, but the global environment". Photo / Mark Mitchell

Climate Change Minister James Shaw has asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to offer to send firefighters to Brazil to help battle the Amazonian forest fires.

But the Brazilian Government has not yet responded to any of New Zealand's offers to help fight the massive fires.

This comes as the country's President, Jair Bolsonaro, continues to come under international pressure.

Speaking to the Herald, Climate Change Minister James Shaw was critical of Bolsonaro and said he was "trashing not just the Brazilian environment, but the global environment".

The Brazilian President was: "willing to basically make a wasteland of our home in return for a perception of economic gain," Shaw said.

He added that Brazilian voters will be having a sense of "buyers regret" after electing Bolsonaro as President.

But Shaw stopped short of saying he should resign.

Tens of thousands of fires are raging across the Amazon – many of which have been caused by farmers clearing land.

Shaw said there has been a "gargantuan" amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from the largest fires that have been set in many years.

New Zealand has a role to play in the fight, Shaw said, adding that firefighters were sent to Australia to fight massive blazes last year.

The same offer should be made to Brazil, Shaw said.

On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she instructed foreign affairs officials to "raise New Zealand's concerns" directly with the Brazilian Government.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said Brazil has not yet responded to the Government's offer.

Earlier this week, the G7 offered US$22 million (NZ$35 million) in aid to fight the fires.

Brazilian president Jial Bolsonaro rejects offers to help put out the fires in the Amazon. Cartoon / Rod Emmerson

But Bolsonaro rejected that offer and wouldn't accept it unless he got an apology from French President Emmanuel Macron, who he said had accused him of "lying" about climate change.

Shaw said the pair should stop squabbling.

"Frankly, this is far too important for this kind of fairly juvenile behaviour and we need to get on with trying to put out the fires and reforesting afterwards."

Shaw said the US$22 million offer was nowhere near enough and would equate to roughly an hours' worth of expenditure.

"If you look at the scale of the fires, the fact that there are roughly 10,000 fires separately burning and the kind of effort that would need to be deployed, you would chew through US$22 million very quickly."

He wouldn't say how much he thought should have been offered, but said $20 million was lowballing it "when it comes to keeping the lungs of the planet operating".