In the midst of COP26, the coordinator of the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change resigns – 11/02/2021 – Environment

Executive Coordinator for Brazilian Forum on Climate ChangeOswaldo dos Santos Lawson resigned from his position on Tuesday (2). The information has been confirmed for a sheet by coordinator.

The resignation is being requested in the midst of an investigation of COP26, the United Nations conference on climate change, which was held in Glasgow, UK. Lucon participates in this event.

He sent a message to the fellow’s WhatsApp group stating that the forum “no longer includes this Executive Coordinator” after “909 days” of work. The letter was sent this Tuesday from Glasgow.

“I asked [exoneração do cargo]. I have not received any response yet. I sent an email to the minister [do Meio Ambiente, Joaquim Álvaro Pereira Leite]”In order to convey the information to the President of the Republic, whom I informed by decree,” Lecon said in the report.

a a sheet He made contact with the press office of the Ministry of Environment, which did not confirm the resignation or provide information about the application submitted.

“My intention in taking over the forum was to bring the federal government into contact with civil society, to promote dialogue in a transparent, science-based way and in strengthening our institutions. That didn’t happen. So I think someone else could do this job better than me,” said the moderator.

Lawson declined to elaborate on the obstacles to the work of the forum, which includes representatives from the federal government and civil society.

“I am at the COP as an observer for the United Nations, not for any government, and here I will participate in the meetings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Climate Committee, which has this aspect of neutrality. For that reason, I will abstain at this time,” he said. .

Lucon has been appointed Executive Coordinator of the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change by President Jair Bolsonaro. The appointment decree was signed by Bolsonaro and then Environment Minister, Ricardo Salles, on May 9, 2019. The coordinator replaced Alfredo Serkis.

The function of the Forum is to support the actions of the President and to build a bridge between government and society. By law, the university is one of the “institutional instruments” of national policy on climate change.

In a proposal to update this policy, under discussion in Bolsonaro’s government, the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change continues as an “advisory body” for national policy on climate change.

According to forum members, this was a space to set goals that the Lula administration had taken for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

During the Temer government, the Forum developed a proposal to implement the Brazilian commitment to reduce greenhouse gases, or the so-called Nationally Determined Contributions. The proposal included emissions-neutral scenarios for the following decades.

During Bolsonaro’s government, the forum lost its importance. There were no calls from full members; The transparency of documents is lost; Performance was limited to discussions on WhatsApp, according to experts familiar with the forum’s work.

During COP26, the Ministry of Environment announced a new Brazilian climate goal to reduce emissions of polluting gases by 50% by 2030 and to neutralize carbon emissions by 2050.

Previously, the country’s goal was to cut 43% of national emissions by 2030.

However, the announcement was terse in not indicating the basis for the cut. If the reduction follows the same basis as the previous update (as of December 2020), the country will still emit more gases than stated in the target set in 2015, in the Paris Agreement. If the country follows the most recent rule available (the Fourth National Emissions Inventory), the emissions cuts will be the same as those pledged in 2015.

In other words, in any of the scenarios, Brazil does not increase its climate ambition in the new Nationally Determined Contributions (an abbreviation for Nationally Determined Contribution) made to the world. More ambitious goals were expected from the signatories to the Paris Agreement.

Collaborated with Anna Carolina Amaral, from Glasgow