Brazil meets goal of reducing deforestation-related emissions

Brazil has been the only country so far to meet the goals for reducing deforestation-related greenhouse gas emissions set in December 2011 by the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change in Durban (COP17) in South Africa.

“Six hundred million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent – that is the magnitude of Brazil's deforestation reduction efforts,” the Minister for the Environment, Izabella Teixeira, announced Tuesday (June 3), during the Environment Week celebration in the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro. Over the past four years, she said, Brazil has successfully reduced the equivalent to the United Kingdom's annual emissions.

The minister has also announced that next Thursday (5), Brazil will formally disclose its reduction data to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“Not only are we reducing our emissions, but we're also recording our reduced emissions relating to avoided deforestation, and showing the world that the REDD+ initiative [Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation with forest conservation and management programs] can be really effective in reducing emissions and is of great consequence to the Biodiversity Convention, because it allows us to avoid both deforestation and biodiversity losses.”

Under international agreements, Brazil is not required to reduce its emissions, but according to the minister, it does so in order to produce tangible data for global negotiations and to show that it is possible to advance towards becoming a low-carbon economy.

“All global efforts to reduce deforestation combined still fall behind Brazil's. It's another fine goal our country has scored,” the minister said.

By showing real, tangible results, Brazil hopes to provide a good role model at Peru's COP20 negotiations in December and later at France's COP21 in 2015 to help expedite a new global climate agreement.

Translated by Mayra Borges