The most anticipated event of the year has finally arrived (no, not the Bonn intersessionals!). Last night, after an early stumble, Brazil beat Croatia in the opening game of the 2014 World Cup. Just as much of the world looks up to Brazil’s national team, many Parties admire Brazil’s great success in tackling deforestation, with a 70% reduction during the past decade. And rightly so! It’s worthy of a good cheer.
One success alone will not be enough for Brazil, you can’t stay a winner forever. While historically deforestation has always been Brazil’s biggest source of emissions this is changing. It is now time for Brazil to commit to an ambitious target that will bring down emissions across all sectors. In order to stay on top of it game, Brazil needs to commit to an ambitious target to bring down emissions across all sectors.
Emissions from agriculture, energy and transport are already higher than emissions from deforestation. ECO has learned that emissions from the Brazilian energy sector more than doubled between 1990 and 2012, making it one of the fastest growing sources of GHGs. It is time for Brazil to stop investing in fossil energy and get on track for a renewable future.
To become a true climate champion again, Brazil needs to keep up the fight against deforestation while bringing down emissions across all sectors. ECO calls on Brazil to commit to achieving zero deforestation by 2020, and tackling emissions from other sectors.
