Brazil to cut greenhouse gases emissions by 36%

Since the country announced earlier this year that its deforestation decreased by 46 percent and as its population is taking global warming seriously the government unveiled very ambitious goals for 2020.

Indeed, to Reuters and several other sources the country is willing to cut its emissions by a massive 36 percent minimum and even offered to go as far as 39 percent. This is even further than the United Kingdom.

But there is a slight problem as the base year is 2020. This still represents major cuts and we I believe we shouldn’t decrease the Brazilian climate ambition as it is excellent news.

As Reuters notes :

Brazil raised the pressure on other nations on Friday ahead of a world climate summit, pledging deep cuts in its greenhouse gases over the next decade that would take its emissions back to 1990s levels.

Latin America’s largest economy is committing to cut its emissions by between 36.1 percent and 38.9 percent from projected 2020 levels, Dilma Rousseff, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s chief of staff, told reporters in Sao Paulo.

Brazil’s emissions would drop to near 1994 levels of 1.7 billion tons if the top end of the pledged range is met. That would represent about a 20 percent cut from the 2.1 million tons emitted in 2005.

The pledge, while voluntary and not internationally binding, aims to encourage other nations to adopt aggressive cuts and could make a global deal more likely at the December summit in Copenhagen, which aims to forge a new climate pact.

“With this, Brazil destroys the main argument of the rich countries — that developing countries don’t want to adopt targets,” said Paulo Moutinho, a researcher with the Amazon Institute for Environmental Studies.