Interview: Brazil expects “a package of decisions” in Cancun climate talks

The ongoing United Nations Climate Change conference in Cancun, Mexico, might witness a package of decisions on major issues of UN’s convention on global warming, a Brazilian environment official says.

“It is expected that the Cancun conference will result in a package of decisions to cover … all the major themes of the Convention: Adaptation, Mitigation, Funding, Technology and Training,” Branca Americano, secretary for climate change of Brazil’s Environment Ministry, told Xinhua in a written interview.

“Brazil hopes that negotiations advance in the sense of defining methodologies to verify these actions, either through national or international audits,” Americano said.

Establishing common criteria to verify the actions is a key issue, and is particularly expected to advance during the talks, she said.

The environment official said that, regarding the discussion on the need to stick to Kyoto Protocol commitments, Brazil would support the extension of the agreement, rather than building a new deal.

“The country, as a signatory to the Protocol, does not advocate the construction of a new agreement,” she said. “Instead, a new term should be established for commitments made by the parties that are listed in Annex I of the Convention and, as defined in the text of the Protocol, it should succeed the first term, from 2008 to 2012.”

Meanwhile, Americano said that the developed countries have well-established, carbon-intensive economies and should shoulder the historical responsibility for emissions of greenhouse gases.

“We are talking about a socially fair economy based on clean technologies and with high level of energy efficiency,” she said. “Similarly, it is necessary that developed countries also migrate to this new model of development and make a more serious commitment to reduce their emissions.”

In contrast, Americano said, developing countries have to strengthen their economies so as to satisfy the basic needs of their people, such as health, nutrition, education, housing and basic sanitation.

She also suggested that developing countries should implement the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions — a set of policies recognizing that different countries may take different nationally-appropriate actions to cut emissions in accordance with common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.

Americano said Brazil would present in Cancun what it has done since Copenhagen, with emphasis on implementation of the Sectoral Plans that would see a reduction of between 36 and 39 percent of emissions by 2020, and a notable reduction in the deforestation rate in the Amazon Rainforest region.

Latest official figures showed that deforestation in the Amazon region totaled 6,451 square km between August 2009 and July 2010, the lowest lowest level since the beginning of records in 1988.

In the interview, the Brazilian official also praised China’s “significant efforts” to make its economy cleaner and its contributions to the global fight against climate change.