Speech by the Brazilian foreign minister, Ambassador Celso Amorim, at the High Level Segment of the 13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 3rd Conference of the Parties serving as Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol — Bali, Indonesia, 12 December 2007.

Your Excellency Minister Witoelar,

Through you, I commend the Indonesian Government for hosting this Conference in beautiful Bali.

The Nobel Peace Prize winning IPCC has established beyond any reasonable doubt that global warming is one of the greatest challenges mankind has to face, alongside the eradication of poverty and combating hunger and disease. The poorest people in the developing world will be the most affected. Combating climate change is a matter of survival. No one can go it alone. Different countries come to these negotiations with distinct interests and concerns. All, however, have an obligation to contribute to a successful outcome. And there is no substitute for the multilateral road.

All of us must take bigger and bolder steps to reduce emissions. Responsibilities are and should be differentiated. Yet we cannot forget they are common. As President Lula said at the United Nations General Assembly, "it is unacceptable that the cost of the irresponsibility of a privileged few be shouldered by the dispossessed of the Earth."

Brazil is implementing policies to reduce emissions. Efforts to tackle deforestation - the main source of emissions in the case of Brazil - have had unprecedented success: the rate of forest loss in the last three years has decreased by almost 60%. This has led to emission cuts of over 400 million tonnes of CO2, as compared to the average of the past years. As compared to the 2004 peak, emission cuts have reached over 1 billion tonnes. Changing forest use patterns in developing countries is at least as difficult as cutting industrial emissions in the developed world. Yet it is a task that must be confronted. We are doing our part. It is a duty vis-à-vis our own people.

Positive incentives from the international community would greatly help such efforts, especially in the case of the poorest countries.

Important as it is, deforestation represents only a part of the worldwide problem. Burning fossil fuels remains by far the largest source of greenhouse gases.

We must evolve to a global low-carbon economy. The use of ethanol as a substitute for gasoline has avoided emitting 644 million tonnes of CO2 over the last 30 years. In Brazil, ethanol production from sugarcane reduces greenhouse gas emissions and is socially sustainable. It is also energy- and cost-effective.

Biofuels from developing countries have a great untapped potential to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet major energy consumers in the developed world have placed all kinds of barriers to biofuels from developing countries. At the same time, they spend billions of euros and dollars subsidizing their inefficient producers. Such measures distort markets, raise energy prices, spread poverty, endanger food security and are totally inconsistent with climate concerns. If we want to be serious about climate change, such measures should be removed promptly and unconditionally.

Dear colleagues,

Our responsibilities are common. Yet they are differentiated. Those historically responsible for greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere must stop preaching and set the example. Annex I countries must have new and more ambitious legally-binding emission reduction targets. It is extremely worrying that some developed countries do not appear to be heading towards meeting their targets under the Kyoto Protocol even as the biggest emitter still refuses to join the Protocol. Nor have these countries complied with their commitments on financial assistance and technology transfer under the Convention.

Unraveling the delicate structure of the Convention and the Protocol would open a Pandora's box with unforeseeable consequences. This fact must not be seen as a way of exempting each one of our countries, developed and developing, from our duties. Brazil, for its part, is ready to enhance its policies and programs to reduce emissions, in a way that is measurable, verifiable and open to universal periodic review. We invite other developing nations, in a position to do so, to follow the same path.

Dear colleagues,

We must agree on a Roadmap for a comprehensive and global effort based on the Convention and its Kyoto Protocol. It must carry forward the two-track approach agreed in Montreal in 2005. The Bali Roadmap must provide clear benchmarks for negotiating the future of the regime by 2009, based on the four pillars of mitigation, adaptation, financing and technology.

The Adaptation Fund must become operational without delay. Innovative mechanisms for clean technology development must be devised. The TRIPs and Health declaration of the WTO and similar initiatives in the World Health Organization may be a source of inspiration.

One word about market mechanisms before I conclude. Of course we are all in favor of having resort to the market to find solutions to our problems. And the market can indeed be helpful. But some caution is in place. The absence of new public resources may generate a rush to carbon credits. If not used properly, the resources they generate will soon be exhausted and emissions from rich countries will not be contained - let alone reduced to the level that is needed to stop global warming.

Let us not miss the opportunity markets can create. But let us not forget that our responsibilities are not only common and differentiated. They are also public. To face such responsibilities adequately is the very raison d'être of governments and international institutions.

Thank you.