Speach of Minister of the Environment of Brasil - COP 17

SPEACH OF
MINISTER OF THE ENVIRONMENT OF BRASIL
DR. IZABELLA TEIXEIRA

Madam President,
 
Brazil would like to thank you and the people and Government of South Africa for the warm welcome. As sister nations, Brazil and South Africa have in common the will to overcome environmental, social and economic challenges in the context of sustainable development. We also share our full support for the multilateral response to climate change, under the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol, in line with the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities.

Brazil has high expectations with respect to Durban United Nations Climate Change Conference. We expect that COP-17 and CMP-7 will deliver sound results from the outcome of the work of the subsidiary bodies of the Convention and of the ad hoc Working Groups under the Kyoto Protocol and under the Convention.
 
Brazil expects that we will arrive at our predicted destination under the Bali Roadmap. This map shows us a road leading to the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, and to enhanced action on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology and capacity-building. We have made outstanding progress in Cancun, but much still remains to be done here, in Durban.
 
Our main task in Durban, Madam President, is to reach the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is our greatest asset to ensure a strong climate change regime. Further commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol must be adopted. Increased ambition and environmental integrity are key elements in this regard.
 
In Cancun, Parties have agreed to define further commitments for Parties included in Annex I for the period beyond 2012, in time to ensure that there is no gap between the first and second commitment periods of the Kyoto Protocol. Durban is our last opportunity to avoid this gap. We must adopt the second commitment period by the end of this week. The continuation of Kyoto Protocol`s flexibility mechanism, including the Clean Development Mechanism, is contingent upon that.
 
The successful conclusion of the mandate of the AWG-KP requires a fully ratifiable amendment to Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol, for the inclusion of further Annex I quantified emissions reductions targets and for the definition of rules on LULUCF and carry-over of units from the first to the second commitment period. Brazil continues to be fully engaged in working with all Parties that are willing to contribute for the success of negotiations under the Kyoto Protocol.

Madam President,

An ambitious outcome in Durban must advance all aspects of the negotiation. In addition to the establishment of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, we must also operationalize the institutions agreed to in Cancun, including the Adaptation Committee, the Climate Technology Centre and Network, the registry of nationally appropriate mitigation actions and international support, the work programme on response measures, and the Green Climate Fund. The implementation of these institutions will strengthen the international climate change regime, enabling immediate action to tackle climate change.

The urgency of the challenges posed by climate change demands that we all step up our actions on both mitigation and adaptation, guided by science and equity. Developing countries are already making a significant contribution to the global effort to tackle climate change, through ambitious mitigation actions that were announced in the last few years. We are determined to keep up the implementation of our actions, in the context of sustainable development and the fight against poverty.

Madam President, Brazil has been taking a forward position in order to promote the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases and at the same time to develop sustainably.

In December 2009, during COP15, former President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva announced, in Copenhagen, my country's decision and the Brazilian Congress subsequently passed legislation that set in place a National Policy on Climate Change which incorporated Brazil's voluntary commitment to reduce by at least 36.1% the emissions of greenhouse gases compared to projected emissions by 2020.

This means, in absolute terms, the reduction of emissions by up to 1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalent in 2020.

In order to fulfill this goal, financing and incentive mechanisms were set in place together with sectoral plans with targets for the various sectors of the economy.
Such sectoral plans involve all relevant sectors of the economy both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation. This includes the Action Plans for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado, the reduction of deforestation in other biomes, Plans for low-carbon agriculture, for fisheries and aquaculture, for energy, for transportation and for industry.

Although all these plans have adaptation components, one in particular focuses on health. Next year we shall further strengthen our efforts and develop a national plan for adaptation to climate change.

In that sense, in 2011 began the implementation of the National Early Warning and Prevention of Natural Disasters, a fundamental tool to protect lives and ecosystems in the face of extreme weather events that have hit the country.

All these plans are being undertaken with the participation of the different sectors of society. They contain triannial specific targets for mitigation of emissions and propose concrete actions to achieve them, with a robust system of monitoring.

Madam President,

Our National Policy on Climate Change also provides specific funding mechanisms, both of which are already under way: the Amazon Fund and the Climate Fund.

The Amazon Fund is made up of donations calculated on the basis of results obtained by Brazil in its efforts to reduce deforestation in the Amazon. Over USD 1 billion have been commited to this Fund for investments by 2015, as a result of private and oficial contributions, among which that of Norway.

Currently 15 projects are being financed through this Fund, with investments totaling approximately USD120 million focusing on strategic actions in all Brazilian provinces (states) in the Amazonian region that aim to reduce deforestation and to promote the sustainable use of forests.

The Climate Fund, in turn, is a mechanism that uses national resources arising from oil revenue in order to fund mitigation and adaptation in other sectors of the economy. In the current year, this Fund allocated approximately USD 130 million for investments through concessional loans and grants.

Madam President,

The Brazilian mitigation efforts are already showing significant results. In the struggle against deforestation, our largest source of emissions, our goal is to reduce deforestation by 80% by 2020 compared to average deforestation between 1996 and 2005. In 2011, we achieved a reduction of 66%, the lowest deforestation rate since the monitoring system was created, in 1988. Deforestation which had reached a peak of 27 thousand square kilometers, in 2004, in the current year was reduced to a little over 6000 km2.

Since 2005, the cumulative emissions reduction has reached 2.2 gigatons of CO2 equivalent. This may possibly be the most significant contribution to reduce emissions on the Planet.

Yet Brazil, Madam President, contains not only the Amazon. The reduction in deforestation is also occuring in the other biomes of my country.

The focus on climate change in Brazil alos involves the different levels of Government and mobilizes the whole society. Today, out the 27 Brazilian states or provinces, 17 are implementing climate change policies, and 12 have adopted specific legislation.

The Brazilian Forum on Climate Change, with more than 10 years in activity, brings together all different social sectors and participates directly in the process of design and implementation of our national policy.

Additionally, at least 4 business forums are involved , as well as civil society networks, indigenous people and traditional communities, local and state climate change forums, and the National Panel on Climate Change and Climate Network - which bring together academia to provide scientific support to Brazilian national actions .

Madam President,

The challenge posed in Brazil by climate change does not occur in isolation. It relates closely to the policies in place that aim at social inclusion and poverty eradication.

Let me illustrate with two examples of such integrated policies that the Brazilian Government is undertaking :

Through our National Housing Program, 2 million housing units for the low-income population are being built with solar thermal heating systems, taking advantage of this source of clean and renewable energy.

In the context of our Income Transfer Programs, President Dilma Rousseff announced last October the "Green Grant" , which targets those Brazilians who are living in poverty. It benefits people who are struggling to even get access to government services. By 2012, our aim is to assist 70 000 families living in the forest and from the forest. These families will receive the equivalent of $ 650 dolars per year and technical assistance in sustainable forest management and production so as to live in greater dignity and security.

Madam President, the efforts that my country is doing internally reinforce Brazil's commitment to the actions agreed upon under the UNFCCC.

Brazil is working diligently for the adoption of a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and to strengthen the implementation of the Convention in the short, medium and long term.

If all of us, I repeat, all of us work together, we can negotiate, as soon as possible, a new legally binding instrument under the convention, based on the recommendation of science, that includes all countries for the period immediately after 2020.

This is our ambition. This is our goal.

Thank you.