RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil’s carbon emissions surged last year because of rising deforestation in the Amazon, jeopardising the country’s commitments under the Paris climate accord, an environmental group warned yesterday.
The South American nation spewed a total of 2.17 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2019, an increase of 9.6% from 2018, said the Brazilian Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental organisations.
That coincided with the first year in office for President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right climate-change sceptic who has presided over a sharp increase in deforestation and wildfires in the Amazon.
The world’s biggest rainforest is a vital resource in the fight against climate change, as its trees suck carbon from the air. But when they are felled and burned, they release it back.
“The growth in (Brazil’s) emissions last year was driven by deforestation in the Amazon, which surged,” said the Climate Observatory in a report.
It said 72% of the country’s emissions were caused by agriculture and land use, including deforestation, which rose 85% last year.
Under the 2015 Paris accord, Brazil agreed to cut its emissions by 37% from 2005 levels by 2025.
But, last year’s emissions came in 17% over target, said the Climate Observatory.
It said the nation is also on track to miss a 2010 commitment to cut emissions by at least 36.8% by end-2020.
The actual figure will come in 9% higher, it said.
“Our 2020 goal was easy to reach. We were only going to miss it if there was a tragedy. And that’s exactly what’s happening,” said Climate Observatory executive secretary Marcio Astrini.
The report came as Vice-President Hamilton Mourao, the head of Bolsonaro’s task force on the Amazon, led foreign ambassadors on a three-day visit to the region in a bid to improve the government’s international image on the environment.
“We want them to see it with their own eyes... and draw their own conclusions.”
However, environmental groups condemned the trip as a whitewash.
“They are flying on a route that’s strategically planned to hide the evidence of the destruction of the forest, even as deforestation and wildfires are at a 10-year high,” said Greenpeace in a statement. – AFP, November 7, 2020
