"There is no doubt that 2009 was a year totally focused on climate issues", says the secretary of Climate Change and Environmental Quality of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment (MMA), Suzana Kahn. The issue reached the agenda of discussions around the world, culminating in the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP-15), held in December, in Copenhagen (Denmark).
"I think it is important to maintain the strong commitment that the country showed during the COP-15. The MMA will work for it", says Suzana. At the meeting, which brought together delegations from more than one hundred countries in Copenhagen (Denmark) to discuss ways to control global warming, Brazil presented bold targets to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases (responsible for raising the planet's temperature, which can generate natural disasters).
The document that led to the proposal presented at COP-15 was prepared by the MMA. The text was then discussed with experts from other ministries and finally presented to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in November, about a month before the meeting in Copenhagen.
In Denmark, the Brazilian government announced a commitment to reduce from 36.1% to 38.9% the projected emissions for 2020 (which is 2.7 billion tonnes), with actions in the areas of land use, agriculture, energy and siderurgy. The commitment was reinforced by the sanction, in the last week of December, of the National Policy on Climate Change (PNMC), setting into law the targets presented at COP-15.
Suzana Kahn also highlights the creation, in early December, of the National Fund on Climate Change - the first one in the world that use funds from the oil activity for actions relating to mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
The Fund's resources - that can reach R$ 1 billion per year - will prioritize actions in the Northeast and in the coastal region of Brazil, which are more vulnerable to the effects of global warming. The management of the Fund will be made jointly by BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) and the MMA.
Another advance, according to the secretary, was the creation of the Brazilian Panel on Climate Change, whose goal is to provide scientific information on the subject to guide the implementation of public policies. According to Suzana, in the first quarter of 2010, the Scientific Committee of the Panel will be formed, gathering researchers from several institutions.
The Panel will not conduct researches, nor will monitor data related to climate. Its role will be to evaluate the data produced by the scientific community on environmental, social, economic and scientific aspects of the climate change to allow a better understanding of the impacts of the problem and the actions of adaptation and mitigation that should be taken.
In 2009, the MMA has also begun to classify the vehicules circulating in the country, according to their emissions of CO2 and other pollutants - substances that promote global warming and affect human health. The initiative was named the Green Note (Nota Verde), and has had two editions: the first included the models manufactured in 2008, and, the second one, those produced in 2009. "The goal of Green Note is to guide the consumer. We want the conscious consumption to grow more and more, and then create a positive competition among automakers to produce more efficient cars", argues the minister of the Environment, Carlos Minc. He says that in 2010 the Green Note will include motorcycles, buses and trucks.
To Suzana Kahn, "2009 was a year of achievements, and 2010 is the year to consolidate these achievements". She says the country has made substantial progress on issues related to the environment, and that was thanks to the work being done by the MMA. "In the past, the climate issue, for example, was very restricted to the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of External Relations. MMA enabled a broader discussion and thus the achievement of more advanced positions on the subject", she says.
Redes Sociais