Brazil’s Policy Towards Climate Change Brazil signed the FCCC in 1992; ratified by National Congress in February in 1994 Since June 1994 the Ministry of Science and Technology has the responsibility to coordinate the national efforts to attend the demands of the FCCC Inter-agency (10 “Ministerios”) Committee on Global Climate Change (July 1999): policies, legislation, subsidies to international negotiations, etc.  no societal involvement

National Commitments Brazil takes Article 4.1 very seriously: “All Parties should take into account their common BUT differentiated responsabilities” Article 12 (in accordance Art. 4.1), each Party shall communicate: –A national inventory of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol, to the EXTENT ITS CAPACITIES PERMIT, using comparable methodologis (…) – A general description of steps taken or envisaged by the Party to implement the Convention – Any other relevant information (e.g. material relevant for calculations of global emission trends)

National Commitments (continued) Funding for the National Inventory: August 1996 from Global Environment Facility (GEF)  delayed 5 sectors to be covered by the National Inventory: energy, industry, forest, agricultural and residues (using existing programs, e.g., Alcohol program, the Energy Conservation program, the Renewable Energy program, the Recycling program, the Control of Air Pollution program, the Program on Forest Conservation, etc.)

Summary and Next Steps Brazil opted for a gradual but progressive action (depending on the Annex 1 Parties, specially the U.S., actions)  Priority to National Inventory Next steps: National Plan for mitigation of GHG, scientific research (specially vulnerability studies;e.g., Sao Paulo University, Rio University and the Ministry of Environment established a center for the Study of the implications of climate change on the environment in December/2000), and capacity building (human resources)

Two other important issues 1) Lack of guidance/lack of debate The action of NGOs The establishment of transaction projects (private sector, NGOs)  National Forum on Climate Change (led by Brazil’s President)  “hands on” societal involvement (e.g. first seminar last weekend = 800 people = scientists, NGOs, federal and state officials, private sector) 2)Forests in the Kyoto Protocol: (“avoided deforestation”) MMA is for X MRE is against Amazonian States are for X Federal Government is against (but, PETROBRAS forest plantation plan) US is for X EU is against Brazilian NGOs are for X European NGOs are against