Business leaders, governments and non-governmental organizations in Brazil confirm that the required public policies on climate change and biodiversity are should start to be dealt with in a unified manner in Brazil. The sectors were gathered together on November at the 1st. Business Movement Seminar for Conservation and the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity ("MEB"), held in Cajamar in the State of São Paulo.

The Director of Climate Programs and Policies of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT), Carlos Joly, initiated the discussions arguing that science has already established the connection between the two issues and what is now needed is to create bridges through public policy.

According to Joly, the government believes that this convergence will become even more effective with some of the initiatives that are underway and that bring together the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of the Environment. A proposal for a national policy on biodiversity is included among the measures that will be sent to Congress this year, which includes some liberation of research involving access to genetic resources, amongst other items.

For Caio Magri of the Ethos Institute, responsible for the Executive Secretariat of the MEB, one of the factors in bringing together actions for climate and biodiversity is the creation of a Brazilian biodiversity forum along the lines of the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change. Magri said that the creation of the new forum will give greater prominence to the biodiversity agenda and will facilitate contribution to climate change policies, which already point toward economic instruments such as payment for environmental services and compensation for those who maintain forests and add value to carbon stocks.

According to Magri, the productive sector not should be alone in promoting the convergence of agendas. "The government needs internal changes to create consistency between their social, environmental and economic policies and the productive sector", he said.