The Brazilian government delivered its new target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at COP29, the UN climate conference, in Baku, Azerbaijan. The commitment is to reduce between 59% and 67% by 2035, compared to 2005 levels. This decrease is equivalent to between 850 million and 1.05 billion tons of CO₂.
The new Brazilian climate target, the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), includes, for the first time, the reduction in the use of fossil fuels as one of the measures to cut emissions.
“This is the Brazil that will take this effort to COP30, in Belém. A COP of implementation, of results, which are not just for Brazil. The entire world needs to have equally ambitious NDCs. May we map the path to the transition, to the end of the use of fossil fuels. May we map the path to ending deforestation”, said the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva.
The document with the new commitment was delivered by her and the vice-president of the Republic, Geraldo Alckmin, to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Countries have until February 2025 to present their NDCs, which must be updated and increased every five years under the Paris Agreement.
According to the government, Brazil is aligned with the global goal of climate neutrality by 2050, and the global commitment to limit warming to 1.5°C in relation to the pre-industrial period, as agreed at COP28, in Dubai, in 2023. .
The NGO Climate Observatory, however, considered the goals to be out of line with the global warming limit as well as the commitments already made by the country itself. Still, they say, they are out of step with current energy policies and with President Lula’s promise to eliminate deforestation by 2030.
“The Brazilian NDC brings some advances, but shows cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, it demonstrates that the Ministries of Finance and the Environment have been working to align public policies towards decarbonization. On the other hand, it brings emission cut targets that are far from the structural transformation of the economy necessary for a 1.5°C world”, says Claudio Angelo, international policy coordinator at the NGO.
