Mourão says that the way to comply with COP26 agreements is an ‘internal matter’

Vice President Hamilton Mourão said this Thursday (4) that it is an “internal question” to know how Brazil will do to fulfill the new commitments assumed at COP26, the United Nations conference on the climate crisis, in Glasgow.

“I think that Brazil does not have to get there and present how to do it. How to do it is our internal question,” said Mourão, who is also president of the Amazon Council, an interministerial policy body for the region.

At the meeting of world leaders this week, Brazil announced the goal of reducing by 50% the emission of polluting gases by 2030 and neutralizing the emission of carbon by 2050. Previously, the country had the objective of reducing, by 2030, 43% of the emissions 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.

“Let’s remember that when we took over the government, there were NDCs [sigla em inglês para Contribuição Nacionalmente Determinada, sobre compromissos de cada país para reduzir emissão de gases] 37% and 45% reductions had already been formalized and no one was asking how this was going to happen,” said Mourão.

The vice president once again said that there is prejudice in relation to the Bolsonaro government.

Last week, he said that criticism of the government’s environmental policy is political, because most of the people with greater environmental awareness are on the left and that everyone at an event like COP26 would throw a stone at the current president of Brazil.

The vice president spoke with journalists on Thursday after he participated in an event of the Brazilian delegation at COP26, accompanied by Environment Minister Joaquim Leite, who did not speak to the press.

Brazil also signed two agreements with more ambitious goals for the climate at the COP this week.

In one of them, he pledged to limit deforestation in the coming decades, together with 123 world leaders. The document is entitled Declaration of Forests.

In it, rich countries must jointly allocate US$ 12 billion of public funds, until 2025, to finance forest protection.

The private sector also joined in the announcement, pledging another $7.2 billion.

Although the two funds were announced along with the declaration, they are not included in the document, but form the Global Commitment to Financing Forests. The Declaration of Forests, on the other hand, has six principles; five of them cite sustainable agriculture and sustainable land use.

Just one page long, the declaration also commits to “strengthening shared efforts” for forest conservation and the resilience of indigenous and rural communities, as well as facilitating funding flows.

At the top of the Ministry of Agriculture, the declaration’s second principle was received with concern, citing the trade in commodities unrelated to deforestation.

Without giving details, the item endorses the “facilitation of trade and development policies, internationally and domestically, that promote sustainable development and the production and consumption of sustainable commodities, that work for the mutual benefit of countries and that do not lead to deforestation and to land degradation”.

The fear on the part of the government is that the defense of sustainable criteria — now with the endorsement of forest holders — will be taken to the World Trade Organization.

Brazil also signed the agreement for the Global Commitment on Methane, with other 97 countries. The proposal’s goal is to reduce 30% of global methane emissions by 2030, compared to 2020 emissions.

About 70% of gas emissions in the country are concentrated in the agricultural sector, according to data from SEEG (System for Estimating Emissions and Removals of Greenhouse Gases).

The largest beef exporter in the world, Brazil resisted the agreement, which implies a review of processes in cattle raising. According to sources linked to the high level of the federal government, pressure from the United States in recent weeks was decisive for the adhesion, which had the agreement of the Ministries of Environment, International Relations and Agriculture.