The CNA (Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil) delivered this Tuesday (5.Oct.2021) to the federal government a document with the position of the agricultural sector for the COP26 (26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change), scheduled for November , in Glasgow, Scotland.
“We will take our commitment to continue mitigating, adapting and contributing to adding more and more sustainability to our products”, said the president of the CNA, João Martins, highlighting the role of science in the quest for neutrality of greenhouse gas emissions. In its position, CNA reiterates the sector’s commitment to reducing emissions through the adoption of low-carbon technologies and good agricultural practices.
The organization listed five themes that, for the sector, are the most relevant in the negotiations of the new climate agreement at COP26.
Here is the following:
- Objective definitions about the carbon market;
- Adoption of the action plan that deals with the insertion of agriculture in the face of the Paris Agreement;
- Financing to comply with the Paris Agreement; adoption of mechanisms focused on adaptation;
- Production and preservation guided by science and legality.
The document was delivered during a virtual event with the participation of the Minister of the Environment, Joaquim Leite, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Tereza Cristina, and the head of the area of climate change at Itamaraty, André Maciel, who will be part of the delegation Brazilian at COP26.
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The Paris Agreement, which will be discussed at the conference in Glasgow, was signed during COP21, in 2015, in France. In the document, which was the result of more than 20 years of negotiation, the nations defined long-term goals to limit global temperature warming to levels below two degrees Celsius, if possible to 1.5 degrees, by the end of this century.
Based on the commitments of the Paris Agreement, Brazil defined its goals, the so-called Determined National Contribution (NDC), in which it commits to a 37% reduction in emissions by 2025 and 43% by 2030, and neutrality in greenhouse gas emissions by 2060. In April this year, during the Summit of Leaders on Climate , President Jair Bolsonaro pledged to end illegal deforestation by 2030 and achieve neutrality of emissions by 2050, anticipating the previous signaling by ten years.
Zero neutrality (or net zero emissions) is achieved when all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are brought into balance with the removal of these gases from the atmosphere, which happens, for example, by restoring forests. This means changing the energy matrix to sustainable sources that do not depend on burning fossil fuels, in sectors such as transport, energy generation and industry.
For other sources, for each ton of carbon dioxide emitted, one ton must be compensated with climate protection measures, with the planting of trees, for example. Among the main themes to be debated at COP26 are the carbon market and the financial procedures to achieve emission reductions.
Role of agriculture
For the Minister of the Environment, Joaquim Leite, agriculture plays an important role in achieving neutrality, as around 220 million hectares (45%) of the country’s native forests are in private property. “This makes agriculture already considered sustainable. I note that sustainable agriculture is not only in the production process, but the volume of environmental services provided by rural producers, protecting their native forest areas”, he said.
For the Minister of Agriculture, Tereza Cristina, the agribusiness sector should contribute to active decarbonization, but without compromising the competitiveness of agriculture and livestock, nor the food security of the population. “Now [na COP26] we have the opportunity to establish objective conditions so that agro can contribute not only to the mitigation of gases and decarbonization of production chains, but also to address our adaptation needs to the impacts of climate change”, he stated.
For that, the minister explained that the federal government has been acting in three axes of sustainable development, with the economic, environmental and human dimensions. Thus, according to her, efforts are focused on innovation and sustainable production, land and environmental regularization and the productive insertion of family farming.
With information from Brazil Agency