16/10/2009
- During a meeting held this week in Brasília,
the ministers for the Environment, Carlos
Minc, Foreign Affairs, Celso Amorim, Science
and Technology, Sergio Rezende, and representatives
of the Ministry of Finance and Civil House
discussed the proposal Brazil will present
at the United Nations Convention on Climate
Change in December in Copenhagen (Denmark).
"The meeting was
very productive", says Carlos Minc.
According to him, the participants discussed
the adjustments that will be made to the
original document, produced by the Brazilian
Ministry of Environment (MMA) and presented
on October 13 to President Lula. "Looking
at the request from the Minister Dilma [Rousseff],
we have already ordered the Ipea [Institute
of Applied Economic Research] scenarios
based on economic growth of 5% to 6% annually
until 2020", says the minister - the
original document considers a growth of
4%. "These studies should be ready
in few days", he says.
To Minc, the analysis
of economic scenarios of further growth
in the GDP [Gross Domestic Product] is relevant.
"This request from Minister Dilma is
interesting because it is possible that
the Brazilian economy will grow more than
4% per year", he says. "Our goals
will not result in a restriction on our
development and on the fight against social
exclusion, inequality and poverty",
he emphasizes.
The proposal prepared
by the MMA includes an 80% reduction in
deforestation in the Amazon until 2020 and
it also limits the emission of carbon dioxide.
The idea is that Brazil maintains, in 2020,
the same level of CO2 emissions recorded
in 2005. "We considered the level recorded
in 1994, which was 1.5 billion tons. In
2005, Brazil emitted 2.2 billion tons, and
in 2020 the estimate is that we reach 2.8
billion tons", said Minc. "But
for that, we need to take strong actions",
he says.
According to the MMA's
secretary of Climate Change and Environmental
Quality, Suzana Kahn, who attended the meeting,
for Brazil to reduce the CO2 emissions,
it is not sufficient to reduce deforestation
in the Amazon. "It is necessary to
make arrangements in different sectors such
as industry, agriculture, transport and
energy. The reduction in CO2 emissions will
have to be a government policy as a whole,
not just of the MMA", she says.
Brazil will also propose
a global target of reducing emissions of
greenhouse gases to the participants of
COP-15. "We will ask countries to reduce
their emissions, but giving our example,
doing our 'homework'", said the minister.
The final version of the Brazilian proposal
to COP-15 will be presented to President
Lula on October 20.
+ More
MMA proposes a day without
the use of plastic bags
13/10/2009 - Responsible
for the campaign "Plastic Bags Stink",
the Brazilian Ministry of Environment (MMA)
has launched the Conscious Consumer Day
- October 15 - and proposes a challenge:
a day without the use of plastic bags. As
it has happened in the Car Free Day, the
idea is to raise environmental awareness
among consumers and encourage them to refuse
plastic bags in their shopping on this date,
adopting a returnable bag or another alternative.
In 2008, Consumers International
(CI) launched a global mobilization on October
15 to mark the importance of education for
sustainable consumption. The movement Global
Consumer Action Day received support from
more than 40 member institutions of the
IC and other consumer groups in 33 countries,
contributing to The Marrakesh Process, in
which Brazil took part in 2007, being represented
by the MMA.
The challenge of the Plastic
Bag Free Day was accepted by the supermarket
chain Carrefour - the newest partner of
the MMA's campaign "Plastic Bags Stink".
It will start in Rio de Janeiro, where the
stores will encourage housewives and other
customers to refuse plastic bags.
The celebration will
also be marked by the launch of the campaign
Internet strategy, with the presentation
of the website www.sacoeumsaco.com.br and
of the coordinated actions on social networks
like Orkut, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.
The goal is to spread the campaign among
opinion formers and Internet users in general.
Each year 500 billion
plastic bags are disposed of improperly
in the environment around the world, clogging
drains, causing floods, polluting waters
and killing turtles. In Brazil, it is estimated
that 1.5 million plastic bags are consumed
every hour.
+ More
Research highlights
the Brazilian Federal Government's environmental
policy
07/10/2009 - The Brazilian
environmental policy was highlighted in
the latest CNI/Ibope research, done in September:
61% of respondents approve the work done
by the Federal Government in this area.
This is the highest approval rating since
the survey began to be done in 2003.
In the chapter that
addresses specific areas of operation of
the Federal Government, all nine items investigated
show improvement of the evaluation. The
most significant increases occur in the
fight against hunger and poverty; in the
environmental area; in education; and in
the fight against unemployment.
The survey was done
between September 11 and 14, with 2,002
respondents in 142 cities. The margin of
error is 2 percentage points.
