Danish congresspeople affirmed on Tuesday (30), in a meeting with deputies at the Chamber, that they expect that Brazil assumes a prominent position at the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference (COP 15), which will be held in December in Copenhagen. The committee, composed by 10 congresspeople and by members of the Danish government, came to Brazil to discuss a new agreement on climate change, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

For the head of the foreign delegation, Deputy Steen Gade, if Brazilians keep their plans on the reduction of deforesting and start to adopt measures related to climate, other nations could be pressured to define a bolder position at the decrease of the production of greenhouse gases.

Steen Gade reminded that the European Union, of which Denmark is a member, has already agreed in reducing in 20% its emissions by 2020, regarding the levels measured in 1990. The deputy admitted that it is necessary to work further to contain the effects of climate changes. Gade agrees that the rich nations should support the developing countries financially, so that they can adopt alternatives of economic growth without needing to deforest and to pollute.

Goals for Brazil
According to the current climate agreement, developing countries are not obliged to assume goals on the reduction
of emissions, because they have polluted less throughout history. Nevertheless, for the Deputy Antonio Carlos Mendes Thame (PSDB-SP), it is time for the Brazilian government to adopt a more ambitious position and accept the fulfilling of the goals, even if smaller regarding the rich.

“The thesis defended by Brazil is that the goals are only required from rich countries, which are historically to blame for that. That may be right from the standpoint of a balancing with the past, but do not see the large polluters of the present: China, which pollutes the same of even more than the US, and Brazil itself, which is a large polluter, due to the fires”, he stressed.

The deputy Vanessa Grazziotin (PCdoB-AM) highlighted that one should not forget that the largest world polluter, the United States, did not sign the Kyoto Protocol. “Brazilian government was always willing to assume goals. There is no disagreement according to its content. The only disagreement regards the form, and the forwarding of the content, since the United States did not assume goals. Thus, Itamaraty [the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations] opted for saying that, if they do not assume, we will not either, because they understand that this is the strongest and most powerful pressure”, he explained.

From the Jornal da Camara
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda