Brazil emitted 21.1mn metric tonnes (t) of methane (CH4) in 2023, up by 6pc from 2020, according to Brazilian climate network Observatorio do Clima report issued on Wednesday.
Most of Brazil's methane emissions come from cattle raising, which released 14.5mn t of methane into the atmosphere in 2023. Brazil's has the second-largest cattle herd in the world, with 238.6mn head in 2023, and it remains the top global beef exporter, according to national statistics agency IBGE.
Brazil should reduce its methane emissions by 45pc to contribute to lowering global temperatures by 0.3ºC by 2040 from 2005, Observatorio do Clima said.
But methane emissions have been growing in Brazil since 2015, while levels rose by 7.2pc in 2023 from 2005, up from a 2.1pc increase in 2020 from the same base year, according to the latest data from greenhouse gas tracking platform Seeg. Brazil is the fifth-biggest contributor to global methane emissions, behind only China, the US, India and Russia.
Methane molecules speed global warming 28 times faster than CO2 in a century, besides methane's shorter life cycle in the atmosphere of around 10-20 years.
Top sectors
Brazil's agriculture sector accounted for 75pc of national methane emissions in 2023, with 15.7mn t of CH4, while cattle raising represented 98pc of it. It is possible to keep growing the cattle herd and cut emissions by 25pc from 2020-35 through better nutrition, genetic improvements and slaughtering younger and healthier cattle, agricultural certification firm Imaflora's climate analyst Gabriel Quintana said.
As for the waste sector, the second higher-producing industry of methane in Brazil, projections show that its emissions will fall by 2.27mn t CH4 in 2035, down by 28pc from 2020 levels, according to Seeg data. Poor management of organic waste in landfills, which could be used to produce biogas and biomethane, contribute the most to the sector's emissions.
Waste management accounted for 3.1mn t of CH4 in 2023, according to the report. Mitigation policies include closing all landfills by 2028 and improving organic waste gathering to boost biogas production by 55pc by 2035, domestic government sustainability organization ICLEI South America's analyst Joice Oliveira said.
Wildfires contributed the most with methane emissions related to land-use change, commonly practiced to expand cattle raising and agriculture areas in lands with native vegetation, reaching 13mn t of CH4 from 2013-23, Amazon environmental research institute Ipam said. Land-use change emitted 1.3mn t of CH4 in 2023, followed by the energy sector, with around 550,000t, half of which come from household use of firewood, and industrial processes with over 20,000t, mostly from leakages in gas and oil supply chains, according to Observatorio do Clima data.
Brazil seeks to reduce areas deforested by naturally occurring wildfires to 1,000km² as of 2030, which would halve methane emissions caused by fire, while it also seeks zero deforestation by 2035.
Cop targets
Brazil set a target to reduce its methane emissions by 30pc by 2030 from 2020 level at the UN Cop 26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
As host of the upcoming UN Cop 30 summit in Belem, Brazil, the host aims to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by 59-67pc by 2035 below 2005 levels through public and private investments in biofuels, renewable energy, biome preservation and fire monitoring and other economy-wide plans, according to the government.
