19/10/2009
- Brazil plans to arrive in 2020 with the
same rates of greenhouse gases emissions
reported in 2005, assuming a growth rate
of 4% per year on average. The goal being
negotiated within the Federal Government
was announced by the Brazilian Environment
minister, Carlos Minc, during the 6th Forum
of Governors of the Legal Amazon, held on
Friday (16/10) in Macapá (AP).
Minc and the governors
reached a consensus on the need to promote
more and more actions to preserve the Amazon
Rainforest. The minister emphasized the
importance of the approval of three bills
pending at Congress and that if voted now
will be part of the Brazilian proposal which
will be presented at the United Nations
Convention on Climate Change (COP-15), in
December in Copenhagen (Denmark).
The bills include the
Payment for Environmental Services, the
creation of a Climate Change Fund, with
funds from the exploitation of oil (about
R$ 1 billion/year) and the FPE Green (amount
of resources transferred to the states by
the Federal Government that will ensure
greater volume of funds to units of the
Federation that carry out actions to protect
the environment).
Carlos Minc said that
the Forum is crucial to relations between
the Federal Government and the states of
the Amazon, and that it will allow Brazil
to appear more united and strengthened in
Copenhagen. "An historic agreement
was sealed between the governors of the
Amazon and the Federal Government, as there
is a consensus on proposals for forest conservation.
Thus, we have a bold goal to exert influence
and build a bridge between developing countries
and the developed ones", said the minister.
By 2020, the Brazilian
government wants to reduce by 80% the rate
of Amazon deforestation and decrease the
carbon emissions from 40% to 20%. A new
inventory of greenhouse gas emissions is
being prepared by the Ministry of Science
and Technology and will serve as a benchmark
for these goals. "This inventory will
not be ready in time for COP-15, but we
already have a document made by the Ministry
of Environment, with estimates of reductions",
Minc said.
Minc said that the degraded
and desertified areas must also be the subject
of debates during the event in Denmark.
And he argued that in addition to reducing
emissions, rich countries must commit to
the decarbonization of developing countries.
The governors of the
Amazon states have decided to carry out
actions to include on the discussions of
COP-15 the reduction of emissions due to
deforestation and degradation. They want
to create a mechanism to compensate the
country financially for it this is the main
proposal of the Charter of Macapá,
adopted at the end of the Forum.
The minister of Environment
agreed with the document presented and suggested
the addition of two other proposals: that
the countries have minimum targets of greenhouse
gases emissions reductions (at least 25%);
and that they contribute to the Global Fund,
whose resources will be used for adaptation
and mitigating actions to face the effects
of climate change.
+ More
Mercosur undertakes
a study on environmental costs of desertification
05/10/2009 - The environmental
and economic costs of not taking the necessary
steps to curb the desertification process,
and the consequent degradation of land,
will be the subject of a study to be conducted
soon by the Mercosur countries. The information
is provided by the secretary of Extractivism
and Sustainable Rural Development of the
Brazilian Ministry of Environment, Egon
Krakhecke. He took part last week, in Buenos
Aires, in the United Nations Convention
to Combat Desertification (COP-9).
According to the secretary,
who accompanied the minister Carlos Minc
at the international meeting, the study
is important because it will subsidize the
bloc's strategy to cope with the problem.
"This initiative represents a step
forward", he says. Krakhecke also highlights
the support from the Environment ministers
of Mercosur, Bolivia, Chile and Venezuela
to the proposal made by the Brazilian minister
and presented in a parallel meeting held
on Tuesday, September 29. Minc defended
the idea that the restoration projects of
degraded and desertified soils should be
considered actions to mitigate the effects
of global warming.
With the agreement between
the ministers, the expectation now is that
the issue be addressed in the UN Convention
on Climate Change, scheduled for December
in Copenhagen (Denmark). "The actions
of recovery of degraded areas, as in the
Northeast of Brazil, should enter the international
carbon credit market", Minc said in
Buenos Aires.
During the meeting in
Argentina, the Brazilian Government presented
the actions that it has been taking to strengthen
the fight against desertification. One of
them is a combination of a great national
pact for building a sustainable development
agenda for the semi-arid region, where 11
Brazilian states are located.
The 1st National Meeting
to Combat Desertification, expected to occur
in 2010 in Petrolina (PE) and Juazeiro (BA),
and the implementation of the National Program
to Combat Desertification were also presented
to the participants of COP-9. The Convention
began on Monday, September 21 and ended
on Friday, October 2.
