In order to further promote the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Brazil, the Government launched the National Clean Development Year this Tuesday, 17 July. On the occasion, 15 governmental bodies, financial institutions and entities representing the national industry presented a protocol of intentions committing them to actions that will reduce greenhouse gas effects particularly through CDM projects. The document advocates energy production with reduced polluting emissions by substituting fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum.

'Without any doubt, the development of new approaches adapted to our comparative advantages, as is the case of bio-fuels and forests, will further broaden the opportunities for generating carbon credits', stated the Minister for Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Miguel Jorge.

Among others, the initiative announced during the meeting of the Economic and Social Development Council (CDES) sets the ground for the preparation of 400 CDM project activities as well as for the training of technical staff in enterprises and financial institutions. A Carbon Market Observatory will be created in order to pursue research and analysis of the international carbon market, to gather information on CDM project opportunities including funding for project proposals.

The launch of the National Clean Development Year takes into account the advancement of sustainable development in Brazil combined with the need to fight global warming. As it is widely known, the three reports prepared by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) this year have outlined the impacts of global warming such as even higher temperatures in summer and lengthier droughts in semi-arid regions, acceleration of sea levels rises and the risk to the fresh water sources. Research shows that in order to re-balance the climate on the planet, a reduction ranging between 50% and 85% in CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions will be required until the middle of this century.

Brazilian Projects

Currently, Brazil has 102 CDM projects registered with the CDM Executive Board, namely, 15% of the world total. The Brazilian projects account for a reduction of over 198 millions of tons of CO2 in10 years, which is sufficient to generate carbons credits equivalent to US$ 2.8 billions. According to the Kyoto Protocol, a country can buy carbon credits from countries that have CDM projects, and, in turn, these countries receive a financial amount for each ton of carbon that was not emitted.

The Brazilian projects are mainly linked to the energy industry with the use of renewable energy, the chemical industry, pig farming, landfills and other sectors that offset fuel emissions (for example, by replacing the consumption of petroleum and coal by natural gas, electricity, bio-fuels and biomass).

Source: Office of the President