Legal Basis

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Article 4.1 (g)

Decree of July 7, 1999, which creates the Interministerial Commission on Global Climate Change

Purpose

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change establishes in its Article 4, first paragraph, that all Parties, taking into account their common but differentiated responsibilities and their specific national and regional development priorities, objectives and circumstances, should take different actions listed in paragraphs (a) through (j).

The promotion of research related to the climate system intended to further the understanding of the effects, magnitude and timing of climate change is a commitment of all Parties to the Convention, being thus also a commitment of Brazil as a Party that has ratified the Convention. Such a commitment is described in Article 4, first paragraph, subparagraph (g), which expresses that all Parties shall promote and cooperate in scientific, technological, technical, socioeconomic and other research, systematic observation and development of data archives related to the climate system and intended to further the understanding and to reduce or eliminate the remaining uncertainties regarding the causes, effects, magnitude and timing of climate change and the economic and social consequences of various response strategies.

The purpose of including this action in the Climate Change Program is thus to initiate a process of developing studies and scientific research into systematic observation and development of information systems of the climate system with a view to reducing uncertainties regarding the causes, effects, magnitude and timing of climate change and the economic and social consequences of various response strategies.
               
Implementation of actions

A pioneer effort to develop climate models will enable the elaboration of possible future climate change scenarios with different concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and analyzing the impacts on Brazil and Latin America. The work proposal is to initiate studies at the Center for Weather Forecasts and Climate Studies (CPTEC) of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which will coordinate the action with a view to building the capacity of specialists, including universities, on general circulation models, establishing partnerships with an international institution to be defined, which can make data available to Latin America, and apply data to existing regional climate models, making long-term analyzes (100 years), with the intensive use of supercomputers.