Brazil increases its greenhouse gas reduction goal

Brazil increased its greenhouse gas reduction goal from 59% to 67% by 2035reported the government of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Brazil’s new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which is based on 2005 levels, tries to align with the commitments of the Paris Agreement on climate change, according to an official note released on Friday night.

Although the signatory countries of the Paris Agreement have until February 2025 to present their new emission goals, the Brazilian NDC will be delivered by Vice President Geraldo Alckmin during COP29, the United Nations climate conference to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22 of this year.

In 2025, Brazil will host the next edition of the conference, COP30which will take place in Belém, Pará, in the north of the country.

The objective proposed by the Brazilian government is equivalent, in absolute terms, to a reduction in emissions to reach between 850 million and 1,050 million tons of carbon gas in 2035.

“The new NDC covers all sectors of the economy and is aligned with the objective of the Paris Agreement of limiting average global warming to 1.5ºC in relation to the pre-industrial period,” stated the official note. “This commitment will allow Brazil to move towards climate neutrality until 2050,” he added.

For NGOs it is not enough

However, the independent organization Climate Observatory, a network of environmental entities of Brazilian civil society, considered that the figures of the new goal “are not aligned with Brazil’s fair contribution to the stabilization of global warming.”

“Nor do they conform to the commitments already adopted by the government or the president’s promise of zero deforestation in the country,” policies that would lead to “net emissions of less than 650 million tons by 2035,” warned the executive secretary of the Observatory. of the Climate, Marcio Astrini, in a statement.

According to Astrini, the government note omitted crucial information such as the strategy to address deforestation or the expansion of fossil fuels, which does not contribute to a “transparent” treatment as befits “a country that aims to be a leader in the multilateral process to combat the climate crisis.”

Lula’s government had reported this week a reduction of more than 30% in the deforestation rate of the Brazilian Amazon compared to the previous period, which represents the largest percentage drop in the last fifteen years.