United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of External Relations (ABC/MRE)

Under this partnership, a preparatory assistance (BRA/00/037) was signed in 2000 between MCT, UNDP and ABC/MRE for the development of the project “Capacity Building and Awareness Raising on Global Climate Change”, which includes: a) developing and proposing a matrix of programs and projects – based on innovative partnerships with the civil society and the private sector – aimed at different financing sources; and b) implementing a program for the dissemination of technical and scientific knowledge related to global climate change. One of the objectives of this assistance is to make updated information available on the “Brazil and the Climate Convention” web site, which is one of the main public awareness raising activities on global climate change developed in the country. Developing a climate change web site was a pioneer and innovative idea, the importance of which has been recognized by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which created the CC:WEB program to disseminate the Brazilian model to other developing countries. The site makes it possible to disseminate important texts in Portuguese for the whole country, such as the text of the Climate Convention and that of the Kyoto Protocol, the First National Communication of Brazil, documents related to the negotiations under the Convention, especially the decisions of the Conferences of the Parties, and documents, speeches and proposals that reflect the Brazilian position. It also indicates relevant climate change related information available on the Internet, with levels of knowledge ranging from information to beginners to very detailed scientific information (such as the IPCC reports). Links have been made to the home pages of national and international institutions that take the public directly to the issues related with climate change, saving people from having to go through the complex navigation process of institutional home pages. In the case of Brazilian home pages, there are links straight to maps of Savannah burning in Cerrado (within the site of EMBRAPA) and to satellite images of the Amazonian forest (within the site of INPE). Links have also been made to issues related to the environment (for example, Agenda 21, Montreal Protocol and Convention on Biological Diversity).  The Internet has been an effective way of putting the external public in direct contact with the Coordination Office team, which has answered questions of students, journalists, and professionals of other areas interested in obtaining information on climate change and on the actual implementation of the Convention in the country. With around 2,000 monthly accesses, the website in Portuguese is the most-viewed thematic site of MCT’s home page, through which the external public makes an average of 250 consultations a month regarding the work and the Brazilian positions under the Convention. As it is developed in four languages  Portuguese, Spanish, English and French  the Brazilian climate change website has become a reference also internationally, especially in Latin America and in Portuguese-speaking African countries, where the site is used to follow the negotiations under the Climate Convention. This demonstrates the importance and the wide scope of this awareness raising activity. The site has been reviewed and is now working with a new platform and structure, according to changes made in the tools used to develop MCT’s home page, which hosts the climate change website. Such an effort has received many compliments by the external public. The budget for this project was set at US$ 344,262 (three hundred and forty-four thousand, two hundred and sixty-two reals), to be provided by MCT/Climate Change Program. A timeframe of 5 (five) years was established for the development of this preparatory assistance.