What Brazil is doing

With landmark results in the reduction of deforestation in the Amazon, an energy matrix considered to be the cleanest among industrialized countries, and advanced legislation which includes targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Brazil comes to COP16 having achieved very positive results in combating climate change, assuming a leadership role in the transition to a low carbon economy.

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During the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009, Brazil stood out by presenting ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by between 36.1% and 38.9% by 2020. That same year, this commitment became law, with the approval of the National Climate Policy.

Brazil's strategy with which to confront global warming has at its core the tackling of illegal deforestation, which currently accounts for most greenhouse gas emissions in the country. In 2009, Brazil recorded the lowest rate of Amazon deforestation in the last two decades, estimated at about 7,400 km2. This index is about 75% lower than the levels of deforestation recorded in 2004. This landmark achievement is the result of a series of integrated policies that combine advanced satellite monitoring and the enforcement action in the forest, including measures to encourage sustainable activities.

Moreover, the Brazilian government also began to develop, with support from academia, the private sector and civil society, plans for a series of actions to reduce emissions from the agriculture, energy and steel sectors. Specific funds to finance activities related to the mitigation of climate change have also been established: the Amazon Fund, which supports initiatives to reduce emissions from deforestation, and the Climate Fund, which from 2011 will use funds from oil exploration activities to combat global warming.