Meio Ambiente

The Brazilian minister of the Environment, Izabella Teixeira, and the Secretary for Climate Change and Environmental Quality at the MMA, Branca Americano, participate, this week, in the second meeting of the Basic group (formed by Brazil, South Africa, India and China) in Cape Town (South Africa).

The meeting aims to establish a common negotiating strategy in these countries for the forthcoming United Nations Conference on Climate Change, scheduled for December in the city of Cancun, Mexico. The idea is to put pressure on developed countries to set targets for reducing emissions to prevent the temperature exceeding the expected increase of 2° C.

Another point is the financing of projects for mitigation of greenhouse gases emissions and for adaptation in response to climate change, which would require investments of US$ 100 billion per year by 2020 - this amount was reduced in the Copenhagen Accord to US$ 30 billion, but only US$ 4.5 billion are ensured for the actions of short-term projects like REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). The exact amount, the governance of these resources and the mapping of existing funds are part of another discussion in the UN Convention.

During the first meeting of the Basic, held in New Delhi (India) in January, the group signed a cooperation agreement to expand technology transfer and to create a fund to support adaptation actions in developing countries.

Forum - According to the secretary, who has just returned from the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF), held last week in Washington D.C. (USA), the representatives of the 17 participating countries adopted a more open and flexible speech, which would be a great improvement on the transparency of the issues that must be negotiated by the Convention in December.