Posted on 27 November
2009 - Brasilia, Brazil: Brazil this week
announced preliminary data for an update
of its long neglected greenhouse gas emissions
inventory, a move
strongly welcomed by WWF-Brazil.
The low key announcement,
made by Science and Technology Minister
Sergio Machado Rezende during a Senate hearing
Wednesday, comes on top of a string of recent
climate change announcements, initiatives
and achievements from Brazil in recent weeks.
It is especially pertinent
in the week before the start of the UN Copenhagen
climate summit, where developed nations
are expected to place some focus on the
degree to which developing nations verify
and account for voluntary emissions reductions
below business as usual projections.
"Publicizing the
Brazilian emissions inventory figures was
another government's gesture to show its
commitment to the climate issue", said
WWF-Brazil's CEO, Denise Hamú.
“This inventory has
been requested, and expected, for a long
time.
“In spite of the delay,
we hope that from now on the data will be
periodically updated according to a defined
schedule, in order to firmly support emissions
reduction policies. Brazil will thus show
that the matter is being seriously and clearly
discussed at a national level.”
The preliminary update,
to be presented to the Copenhagen climate
conference, shows Brazilian emissions jumped
62 per cent from 1.4 gigatons of CO2 equivalent
in 11000 to 2.2 gigatons in 2005.
Deforestation accounts
for a 70% increase in emissions during that
period, which represents 57.5% of total
emissions in Brazil. The sector which ranked
second among contributors to greenhouse
gas emissions was agriculture, accounting
for 22.1% of the Brazilian total amount
of emissions; it increased by 41%.
Reducing deforestation
is being counted on to make a major contribution
to recently announced emissions reductions
targets of 36 to 38 per cent under business
as usual projections by 2020 – laudable
targets by international standards, although
WWF has noted that this announcement was
short on details and contained some uncertainty
on the base years on which the projections
were based.
"Now that the Forest
Code and the environmental legislation risk
being dismantled by the Federal Congress,
it is important that congressmen stay alert
regarding our emissions and the risks they
present to climate", said Carlos Rittl,
head of WWF-Brazil's Climate Change and
Energy Program.
"Agricultural interests
also must understand that agriculture depends
a great deal on the climate balance and
on the rainfall which is produced in the
forest. Deforestation means a great risk
to biodiversity, to the local population
way of life and to our entire economy."
WWF this week publicized
a report showing that, unless a drastic
global greenhouse gas emissions decrease
occurs, up to 70% of the Amazon forest may
be lost, with enormous social, environmental
and financial damage to the country.
Other sectors
According to the inventory,
the energy sector increased its emissions
by 68% between 11000 and 2005, expanding
its participation in the national scenario
from 15.8% to16.4%.
Such an increase also
throw doubts in the government's prognosis
in the presentation of the business-as-usual
and the emissions decrease scenarios for
2020 in Brazil.
"If there was a
68% increase in 15 years, we cannot understand
how the government estimated as 136% this
sector's emissions increase in a business-as-usual
scenario by 2020", Rittl said.
"We hope the government
will disclose the calculations, both for
the business-as-usual scenario and for the
decrease targets for the various sectors.
"Then we will be
able to understand the prognosis and compare
emission mitigation targets to opportunities.
We have, for instance, biomass, wind, solar,
thermo-solar and biofuel energy generation
potential which is very little explored
in our energy matrix as well as in our targets
today."
WWF-Brazil favors a
diversified electric power matrix, one which
makes use of non conventional alternative
sources such as solar and wind energy. According
to ANEEL (the Brazilian electric power agency),
the wind energy generation potential in
Brazil amounts to 143.4 gig watts (GW),
which is the equivalent to 10 times the
energy generated by Itaipu hydro-electric
power plant, the world’s largest.
Wind energy is capable
of supplying 20% of the country's present
electricity demand.
The increase in industry
emissions reached 39%, but the sector's
participation in the national scenario went
down from 2% to 1.7%. The larger emission
growth happened in the treatment of residues:
77%. Nevertheless, its participation is
still a small one when compared to the total
gas emission in Brazil: it went up from
2% to 2.2%.
According to the Ministry
of Science and Technology (MCT), the Brazilian
inventory should be completed by December
2010. In the beginning of the year, that
document will be the object of a public
hearing. The work is led by MCT and it is
being carried out by 150 organizations and
around 700 experts.
The first and only Brazilian emissions inventory
to date was launched in 2004, based on 11000-1994
data.
