NGOs praised Rousseff's goals for climate, but charge Brazil to go beyond

Plan to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases of 43% is good, but Brazil could offer more, environmentalists say





Announced on Sunday (27) by President Dilma Rousseff at the UN, the goals of Brazil to try to curb global warming are positive, but fall short of what the country could offer and what the world needs, according to environmentalists interviewed by BBC Brazil.

Dilma presented in New York the INDC Brazil. The acronym refers to the voluntary commitments of each country to be taken to the UN conference in Paris in December, when it will seek a global agreement on climate change.

Among the main objectives are disclosed to reduce by 37% the emissions of greenhouse gases between 2005 and 2025 and by 43% by 2030.


"Brazil seems to have left the discourse that we are a developing country and we have the right to pollute. There was an improvement in the position."

According Rittl, Brazil is the first major emerging economy to adopt an absolute target to reduce emissions for the entire economy.

He says, however, that the numbers are below the potential of the country and the world needs to limit the warming of the atmosphere by up to two degrees Celsius. "I hope that the proposal is a starting point for negotiations, not of arrival."

Rittl also said the government has yet to define what means the reduction in tons of CO2, as there are conflicting data on the level of emissions in 2005.





Old demands

The Brazilian proposal to reduce emissions in the agricultural sector was also well received. Rousseff said that Brazil will recover 15 million hectares of degraded pastures and reconcile crop and livestock activities with forest preservation in 5 million hectares.


According to her, the integration of farming, livestock and forest is also positive and fixed a lot of carbon that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere.

Other items in the Brazilian proposal generated less enthusiastic responses. Carlos Rittl says there was no news on the goal of restoring 12 million hectares of forest and that the government did not make clear whether the recovery will occur only with native forest or can be made with exotic species such as eucalyptus.

Although also absorb carbon, eucalyptus plantations are not comparable to native forests in terms of biodiversity, says Rittl.

He adds that even if the government recovers 12 million hectares of forests, the number is half of private illegally deforested areas that need to be reforested according to the Forest Code.

Another conservative target and what still needs to be clarified, according Rittl, is the zero illegal deforestation. Rousseff said the goal will be reached by 2030, but a leaked government document cites 2025 as the deadline.

"Accept environmental crimes for another 10, 15 years is embarrassing," the executive secretary of the Climate Observatory.

Plan includes expanding to 23% the share of renewable sources (such as wind) energy production
PR

Plan includes expanding to 23% the share of renewable sources (such as wind) energy production
Alignment with public policies

The proposal to reduce emissions in electricity generation was also greeted with skepticism by environmentalists. Ricardo Baitelo, Climate and Energy Coordinator for Greenpeace, the goals of increasing the use of solar, wind and biomass energies are below the hiring pace this year.

He also said that in order to meet the objectives announced in New York, the government will have to align them with the policies governing investment in the energy sector, including the Ten Year Energy Plan, which runs until 2024.

Today, says Baitelo, the ten-year plan provides a lower percentage of share of renewable sources and biofuels in the energy matrix that announced by Dilma.

Current policies for ethanol, he said, also conflict with the newly presented goals.

"We need not only an alignment on the proposed figures, but public policies to achieve the ambitions."