COP28: Brazil wants 1.5°C target and fund for forests – 11/25/2023 – Environment

Armed with positive numbers of reduction in deforestation in the Amazon, the Brazilian government should arrive at COP28, the UN (United Nations) climate conference, with the intention of being a representative of symbolic issues and standing out as a mediator of conflicts, in addition to propose the creation of a fund for forests.

The event starts this Thursday (30), in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

According to the MMA (Ministry of Environment and Climate Change) and the MRE (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), in the negotiations Brazil intends to be the “champion of 1.5°C”, the most ambitious target of the Paris Agreement.

The idea is that the country encourages other nations — especially the richest ones — to adopt firmer and faster goals, which make it possible to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Published in September, the most comprehensive assessment ever made of progress in combating the climate crisis points out that, despite advances, humanity is heading towards an increase of 2.4°C to 2.6°C in the global average temperature.

This inventory (called “global stocktake”, or general balance) will be one of the central points of this COP. It is based on this that countries must reevaluate their current efforts and make bolder commitments, which must be presented within two years, during COP30, which should take place in Brazil, in Belém.

Therefore, Brazil is now beginning a mobilization that could have direct impacts on the size of its success as organizer of the 2025 COP.

Itamaraty’s Secretary of Climate, Energy and Environment, André Corrêa do Lago, explains that the country will defend 1.5°C as a limit for the increase in global temperature because that is what the most recent report from the IPCC (scientific panel) preaches. UN Climate Policy), launched between 2021 and 2022.

“The new Brazilian government believes in science. And what we are proposing is that it is not just the ambition of countries [que cresça]. We are proposing that, within the Convention, the reference [nos textos oficiais] becomes 1.5°C”, he revealed to Sheet the ambassador. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the body that manages global climate negotiations.

“Brazil thinks that, at this moment when we are taking stock, the Paris Agreement has to incorporate the most recent science”, he says.

Signed in 2015, the treaty says that it is necessary to keep the increase in the global average temperature “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and seek efforts to limit the increase in temperature to 1.5°C”.

Côrrea do Lago argues, however, that this increase in climate ambition comes together with the expansion of available financing so that developing countries can meet these goals.

Financing is one of the biggest points of division within climate negotiations. On this and other topics, Brazil wants to mediate issues that are holding back progress, as a bridge between industrialized and developing countries. It also wants to bring national examples of success to propose solutions.

In this sense, in addition to demanding fulfillment of promises already made, such as allocating US$100 billion annually for climate actions in developing countries, delayed since 2020, Brazil proposes a new financing front. The idea is to create a fund focused exclusively on forest conservation.

“It is a fund that will seek to capture resources that would not fit within the structures that already exist”, explains the diplomat, referring to the carbon market and mechanisms with the Amazon Fund, which are based on greenhouse gas emissions . The fund that should be proposed by Lula at COP28 is based on hectares of standing forest.

No details have yet been released about how it works or which countries would be interested in supporting this fund. The proposal was announced on Thursday (23) at a meeting of ACTO (Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization) as an initial idea, not yet fully designed.

Another announcement that must be made internationally is the creation of an incentive model for the recovery of degraded pastures. As a result, producers interested in buying or leasing this land would have access to financing at lower interest rates to transform them into crops using sustainable agriculture.

At COP28, the country will also join an agreement to triple its renewable energy generation capacity. “Brazil has analyzed and will join the declaration”, says Corrêa do Lago, highlighting that the idea of ​​the agreement is to triple the generation capacity of renewables in the world, as a whole.

“We will work with other countries in bioenergy, ethanol, wind, solar, hydroelectric, everything we can”, he says.

Showcase and Achilles heel

As a decoy for all these proposals, the Brazilian government will take the numbers of a significant drop in deforestation in the Amazon.

From January to October 2023, the deforested area in the biome fell by half (49.6%) compared to last year: it went from 9,493.8 km² to 4,775.6 km², according to data from the Deter system, from Inpe (Instituto National Space Research Institute).

The Plan for Ecological Transformation, aimed at the decarbonization of the Brazilian economy, will also be presented at the Brazilian stand at COP28. Headed by the Ministry of Finance and with the participation of other ministries, an event for the international launch of the project is scheduled for Friday (1st).

Despite the good news, internally, Brazil has difficult issues to resolve in Congress, such as the possible overturn of the presidential veto on the time frame for indigenous lands. The government has also so far failed to approve the regulation of the national carbon market, something it initially intended to take to the COP.

Furthermore, the loss of native vegetation in the cerrado, which has been breaking records, has drawn attention. In the first ten months of the year, deforestation in the biome went from 5,073.6 km² in 2022 to 6,802 km² this year, growth of 34%.

Civil society demands

The cerrado is one of the focus of concerns of scientists and environmentalists for COP28. In early November, a letter signed by more than 40 researchers linked to Brazilian and foreign institutions was published in the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution calling for the protection of non-forest ecosystems in the fight against the climate crisis.

In September, the plan to combat environmental crimes in the cerrado, called PPCerrado, went into public consultation. The final document has not yet been released, but, according to the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, it is ready to be launched.

Another demand came from a document signed by 61 Brazilian NGOs, which ask that this year’s COP deliver an effective plan for the gradual elimination of fossil fuels. The entities are also pushing for the creation of a tax on unexpected profits from oil companies (those obtained in times of crisis, such as the War in Ukraine), to be used for actions to combat climate change in poor and emerging countries.

Brazil is currently eighth in the world in oil production. In March, the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, who will be present at the climate conference, announced plans to scale national production and make Brazil the fourth largest global producer.

NGOs also suggest that mechanisms be created to exchange the external debt of poor and developing countries for actions to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.