Dear Mr. President,

We hereby propose the creation of the Brazilian Forum on Global Climate Change, with the purpose of raising the awareness of the Brazilian society on the global climate change, resulting from the increase in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, its causes and consequences.

2. We would like to recall that Your Excellency, pursuant to the EMI No. 050, of May 20, 1999, has created the Interministerial Commission on Global Climate Change, by means of a decree of July 7, 1999, with the purpose of coordinating the governmental actions in this area. The reasoning expressed below is based on that presented by EMI No. 050, with updates and additional reasoning.

3. The global climate change results from the increase due to human activity in the atmospheric concentration of the so-called greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases of industrial origin. There is scientific evidence that, at least partially, the increase of about half a degree Celsius in the planet’s mean surface temperature observed in the last a hundred and fifty years can be attributed to greenhouse gases released by man. It is expected that in the next century such an increase may reach up to three degrees Celsius, followed by an increase in the mean sea level rise of around half a meter.

4. International concern with such a phenomenon led to the negotiation, between 1990 and 1992, of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a practically universal treaty today, to which more than 170 countries have become Parties. The Convention acknowledges that climate change is a problem that involves a historical responsibility of industrialized countries and, consequently, that such countries should reduce their emission levels. Developing countries, including Brazil, are urged to adopt measures that limit the necessary growth of their emissions by introducing adequate measures, relying on the provision of financial resources and access to the technology of industrialized countries. Moreover, Brazil’s initial commitment under the Convention is to prepare and periodically update inventories of emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases generated by human activities.

5. The First Conference of the Parties to the Convention, held in Berlin, in 1995, recognized that the commitment of industrialized countries of stabilizing their emissions by 2000 at the 1990 levels was not adequate, and initiated, by means of the Berlin Mandate, a negotiating process viewing the adoption of a Protocol with stronger commitments for such countries. As a result, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 and has already been signed by 59 countries, including Brazil, and may enter into force in the next two or three years. Under such a Protocol, the industrialized countries committed themselves to reduce their emission total by 5.2% in relation to the 1990 level.

6. Brazil has been advocating that the common but differentiated responsibility of countries should be used as an objective criterion for sharing the burden of mitigating or making the global climate change less severe, which is sometimes referred to as the "polluter pays" principle. Furthermore, Brazil has submitted a proposal of elements to the Kyoto Protocol containing a Clean Development Fund that would be raised with fines for excess of emissions in industrialized countries. Such a fund would be used to finance the introduction of new technologies that generate less emission and allow a cleaner development process to take place in still developing countries, such as Brazil. With modifications, and thanks also to a joint political action with the United States, such an element of the Brazilian proposal has been included in the Kyoto Protocol. Therefore, in one of its articles, the Kyoto Protocol establishes the creation of a Clean Development Mechanism by means of which international emission reduction certificates in individual project activities are issued, which can be used by industrialized countries to demonstrate compliance with their emission reduction targets.

7. The prospect of entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, with its potential for mobilizing resources of the order of many billions of dollars a year, a portion of which may be directed to the Clean Development Mechanism, makes it urgent that the Brazilian society joins efforts in order to prepare for taking advantage of the opportunities resulting from this international instrument. In the last meeting held with Your Excellency, the Interministerial Commission on Global Climate Change suggested that the Kyoto Protocol be submitted to the National Congress for ratification. China and India should do the same. It is not convenient for Brazil that the Kyoto Protocol does not enter into force in the next few years, because this would lead to a complete renegotiation of the Protocol with unfavorable conditions for Brazil.

8. It should be pointed out that there is an expressive movement towards the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, as the Blair government has recently accepted reduction targets above those established by the Kyoto Protocol, setting carbon dioxide emission reductions 20% below 1990 values by 2010. On their turn, Chancellor Schroeder of Germany and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin of France have declared the willingness of their countries to lead the movement for the ratification of the said Protocol.

9. In the last meeting of the International Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a opinion poll carried out among the participants indicated that the issue of global climate change is ranked one among the relevant issues for the world economy in the coming decade. A conservative estimate of the magnitude of the economic impact of measures to mitigate global climate change is 1.3% of the world gross domestic product, a figure that would be translated in Brazil today into over 10 billion dollars a year, as an estimate of the impact upon our economy, which can be positive or negative depending on the decisions and positions adopted by the Government or negotiated internationally.

10. The international development of the global climate change issue, as a result of the prospects for the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, and the existence of an emission compensation mechanism, which is the Clean Development Mechanism, have increasingly involved the Brazilian private sector, as expressed by the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development, the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo - FIESP, the Brazilian Forestry Society, and the Brazilian Association of Great Energy Consumers.

11. Moreover, Brazilian non-governmental organizations and the academic community have been expressing the need to enhance the debate on the issue, enabling a growing integration of the different social actors, raising the awareness of the society on the challenges of the climate change issue both in terms of opportunities to be translated by the potential transfer of resources for the country through the Clean Development Mechanism mentioned above, and in terms of the need to prepare the country for potential adverse effects on some of the country’s regions. Therefore, it would be desirable that a public body for debates is organized and presided by Your Excellency, demonstrating that Brazil intends to keep its world leadership regarding global environmental issues, as attested by the hosting of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, and the internalization of such issues by the national agenda. By doing so, the country accomplishes the principles expressed in Article 225 of the Federal Constitution of ethical commitment to future generations.

12. For such reasons, we suggest the creation of a Forum on Global Climate Change, with a mandate that is broad and flexible enough to enable high level debate on all aspects of global climate change in order to raise the awareness of society and allow that the viewpoints of the actors involved are duly taken into account by the responsible governmental bodies.

Respectfully,

RONALDO MOTA SARDENBERG
State Minister of Science and Technology

JOSÉ SARNEY FILHO
State Minister of Environment

LUIZ FELIPE LAMPREIA
State Minister of External Relations