Brazil to unveil new, but unambitious climate goals at COP26

Extreme climate events have become more common in Brazil. Photo: Issac Fontana/Shutterstock

The Brazilian government plans to launch new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce carbon emissions next week, as part of the Paris Agreement. The country’s leading negotiator at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow told Reuters that Brazil would raise its current 43-percent 2030 emissions reduction goal to 45 percent.

However, The Brazilian Report understands that the pledge contains fine print that ultimately makes the Jair Bolsonaro government’s climate ambition insufficient to tackle the global rise in temperatures.

The first NDC submitted by the Brazilian government and ratified in 2016 promised to reduce carbon emissions by 37 percent in 2025 and 43 percent in 2030, using 2005 levels as a benchmark. In 2020, Brazil presented a new NDC, maintaining its 2016 goals but significantly increasing its carbon inventory from 2005.

The change essentially meant the country was telling the world it would release 400 million more tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere than it had promised five years previously.

Now, experts say a similar loophole will be present in Brazil’s latest NDC. The new contribution to be presented at COP26 will once...

André Spigariol

André Spigariol covers Brazilian foreign policy, politics, and economics. He has been published by several media outlets in Latin America, including Vortex Media, Spotniks, Congresso em Foco, La Tercera, CNN Chile, Radio Cooperativa, among others.