COP26: Brazil to showcase agribusiness sustainability at Glasgow meeting

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The commitment is guaranteed in documents delivered by the Agriculture and Livestock Parliamentary Front (FPA) and by the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) to the federal government, and are to be presented at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), to take place from November 1 to 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Measures adopted by the Brazilian government for the sector, with a focus on sustainable technologies, will also be on the Climate Summit’s agenda, such as the Sectorial Plan for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation for the Consolidation of a Low Carbon Emission Economy in Agriculture (ABC Plan), a policy that adopts technologies to reduce the environmental impact in agriculture and cattle-raising.

Among them are creating planted forests, pasture recovery, direct planting, Biological Nitrogen Fixation (BNF) in the soil, animal waste management, and Crop-Livestock-Forest integration (ILPF).

In the 2010 to 2020 period, the goal was to apply the technology on 35.5 million hectares and reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere by between 132 to 162 million tons. However, forecasts were exceeded. The ABC Plan technologies reached 52 million hectares, enabling the reduction of some 170 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

CHALLENGES

Environment Minister Joaquim Leite assured that he will defend national interests in climate negotiations and that the country has an ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030. According to the Minister, in 10 years the agricultural sector will absorb 40% of these gases from the atmosphere and will guarantee global food security.

“Brazil has the challenge of reducing emissions, eradicating poverty, generating employment and income, and guaranteeing food for the world, as set forth in Article 2 of the Climate Agreement. This is a challenge that few countries have. Brazil has these three challenges until 2050,” Joaquim Leite pointed out.

To prepare Brazil’s official position in the Climate Summit, the federal government gathered contributions from several sectors, among them 200 associations, class entities, organizations and the business sector.

“With the federal government’s integrated efforts, with the private sector acting with entrepreneurship, with innovation, and with economic resources and incentives, we will get there. We will certainly have a green economy,” the Minister said.

The CNA will participate in COP26 to present the actions of Brazilian agribusiness to promote sustainability. “Brazil and its rural producers have much to show at COP26 in terms of good examples of the efforts being made to reconcile food production and environmental sustainability in our country,” said CNA’s National Environment Commission chairman Muni Lourenço.

COP26 will gather 196 countries signatory to the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 to prevent the increase of the planet’s average temperature by 1.5° to 2.0°C by 2100.