Brazil's government launched its updated climate plan on Tuesday, setting targets for specific sectors such as forests and transportation and proposing carbon-neutral technology roadmaps to more than halve its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2035 from 2005 levels.
The previous plan was launched in 2008. Brazil has committed to reducing its GHG emissions by 59-67pc by 2035 and to achieve net-zero by 2050, according to its latest nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement.
"There are no environmental policies without scientific evidence," Brazil's science and technology minister Luciana Santos said during an event in federal capital Brasilia to launch the plan. "We are not only reacting to disasters, we are anticipating solutions," she added.
The plan draws up measures to attract climate financing in both the public and private sectors — with programs such as the Amazon fund and Eco Invest. The government expects to discuss the plan every two years and update it every four years, the environmental ministry said.
The climate plan also includes eight policy routes for mitigation and another 16 for climate change adaptation, which were all approved in December, totaling 312 in all. It includes plans for adaptation measures in sectors such as agriculture, cattle raising, mining, energy and transport, among others.
But some environmental groups said that the sectorial energy plan for mitigation is not ambitious enough to reach a fossil fuel phase-out. This particular plan foresees to reduce emissions in both crude and natural gas supply chains but does not provide any timeframes, while it also includes expanding the country's nuclear power generation, which would be "unnecessary" and more expensive than other power generation alternatives, climate umbrella group Observatorio do Clima's public policies coordinator Suely Araujo said.
The government is working on a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, but has not yet presented it. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for a global roadmap on the topic during a global summit days prior to the UN Cop 30 climate summit held last November in northern Brazil.
