São Paulo – The government of Brazil should announce, later this month, a proposal to reduce greenhouse gas. It should be presented in December at the United Nations (UN) Summit on Climate Change, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Today (13th), at a meeting with Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the ministers of Environment, Carlos Minc, and Science and Technology, Sergio Rezende, and the executive secretary of the Brazilian Climate Change Forum, Luiz Pinguelli Rosa, presented three proposals.
Lula hopes for the UN proposition to be "strong and of leadership", said the minister of Environment, after the meeting. According to the Foreign Relations minister, Celso Amorim, who is heading the Brazilian delegation in the negotiations, Brazil should have a leadership position, important and compatible with its plans of sustainable development.
The Brazilian plan provides for deforestation in the Amazon to be reduced by 80% by 2020, thus preventing 4.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from being emitted. Deforestation is the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil. After the reduction, the country should cease to emit approximately 5 billion tonnes of CO2.
In an interview in his radio show, Breakfast with the president, president Lula said that the aim is to have other countries take part in the creation of the proposal. “We want to build it along with other countries. We want to determine what kind of proposal we can get in Copenhagen, especially from the developed world, so that developed nations will take on commitments, not only in terms of reducing emissions, but also in paying for the damage that they have already caused to the planet,” he said.
Lula claimed that the proposal to be devised should measure how much gas each country emits, how much it has emitted throughout its history, and how much it is contributing for reducing emissions. “Because then you can hold each country accountable for the damage it has done, and thus put an end to this generic discussion, wherein all want to be treated equally. We want other countries to assume the responsibility,” he stated.
In Copenhagen, the 192 member countries of the United States Framework Convention on Climate Change will have to reach a new agreement on climate in order to regulate greenhouse gas emissions after 2012, the year in which the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period expires.
According to the minister of Environment, a new meeting to discuss the proposals is scheduled for tomorrow (14th). Should the ministries manage to reach a consensus regarding the stance to be adopted by Brazil, a new meeting with president Lula should take place in the 20th.
*With information from Agência Brasil. Translated by Mark Ament and Gabriel Pomerancblum
