The executive coordinator of the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change, Oswaldo dos Santos Lucon, resigned this Tuesday (2). The information has been confirmed to sheet by the coordinator.
The request for resignation takes place in the midst of the realization of COP26, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, held in Glasgow, UK. Lucon participates in the event.
He sent a message to the collegiate members’ WhatsApp group stating that the forum “doesn’t have this executive coordinator anymore”, after “909 days” of work. The message was sent this Tuesday from Glasgow.
“I asked [exoneração do cargo]. I haven’t had any response yet. I sent an email to the minister [do Meio Ambiente, Joaquim Álvaro Pereira Leite], so that he transmits the information to the President of the Republic, to whom, by decree, I report,” Lucon said to the report.
A sheet made contact with the press office of the Ministry of the Environment, which did not confirm the resignation or provide information about the request made.
“My intention in taking over the forum was to put the federal government in contact with civil society, to promote dialogue in a transparent way, based on science and in strengthening our institutions. That’s not what happened. So I think someone else can possibly do this job better than I do,” said the coordinator.
Lucon declined to give details about the obstacles that exist in the functioning of the forum, which brings together representatives of the federal government and civil society.
“I am at the COP as an observer for the UN, not for any government, and here I will participate in meetings of the IPCC, the Climate Panel, which has this aspect of neutrality. For this reason, I will abstain at this time,” he said.
Lucon was appointed executive coordinator of the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change by President Jair Bolsonaro. The appointment decree was signed by Bolsonaro and the then Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, on May 9, 2019. The coordinator replaced Alfredo Syrkis.
The forum’s function is to support the president’s actions and build a bridge between the government and society. By law, the collegiate is one of the “institutional instruments” for the National Policy on Climate Change.
In the proposal to update this policy, under discussion in the Bolsonaro government, the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change continues as a “consultative body” for the National Policy on Climate Change.
According to forum members, this was a space for defining goals that the Lula administration took to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.
During the Temer government, the forum built a proposal for the implementation of the Brazilian commitment to reduce greenhouse gases, the so-called NDC. The proposal included emission neutrality scenarios for the following decades.
In the Bolsonaro government, the forum lost relevance. There were no calls from full members; the transparency of documents was lost; the performance was limited to discussions on WhatsApp, according to experts familiar with the forum’s functioning.
During COP26, the Ministry of Environment announced a new Brazilian climate target to reduce by 50% the emission of polluting gases by 2030 and neutralize carbon emissions by 2050.
Previously, the country had the goal of reducing, by 2030, 43% of national emissions.
However, the announcement was laconic in not pointing out the basis for the cut. If the reduction follows the same basis as the previous update (from December 2020), the country would still emit more gases than indicated in the target made in 2015, in the Paris Agreement. If the country follows the most updated base available (the fourth national emissions inventory), the emission reduction would be the same as promised in 2015.
In other words, in any of the scenarios, Brazil does not increase its climate ambition in the new NDC (acronym for nationally determined contribution) presented to the world. More ambitious goals were expected from signatory nations of the Paris Agreement.
Collaborated with Ana Carolina Amaral, from Glasgow
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