Combat to deforestation decreased carbon emissions in Brazil

Study reveals that the emissions of greenhouse gas is declining
in Brazil since 2005 due to initiatives to regulate land use and tackle deforestation

Desforastation in the Amazon Forest
is decreasing, but it is still a threat

Photo: USAID/José Caldas

A study on the Brazilian greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 through 2011 was released in late November and it shows that the only sector that has had a reduction of emissions in the period was land use. Historically, land use, which includes deforestation, was the main source of carbon emissions in Brazil, because of the high rates of deforestation in the Amazon. According to this study, the country's total amount of emissions dropped from 2.19 billion of tons in 2005 to 1.26 billion of tons in 2011, and the sole responsible for this reduction was the decline of deforestation. The results of the study are particularly positive for USAID/Brazil's Environment Program, which has been supporting initiatives to regulate land use and to combat deforestation in the Amazon for the last 20 years, and certainly contributed to this accomplishment.

This is not to say that the problem of deforestation is solved in Brazil. Land use still is the greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country, and although deforestation in the Amazon and other biomes is decreasing, it is still a threat to Brazil's goal of reducing emissions in about 36 percent by 2020. Another obstacle to achieving this goal is the increase of emissions in the four other sectors: energy, agriculture, industry, and waste. The total emissions of greenhouse gas in Brazil increased 14 percent from 1990 to 2011.

The sector with the greatest increase in emissions was energy. From 2005 to 2011, the rise was 33 percent, due especially to the use of thermoelectric plants to complement the production of electricity and to the increasing number of vehicles that use fossil fuels. USAID/Brazil's Energy Program predicted this growth and developed a number of solutions and policies that can contribute to changing this trend, if they can be scaled up.

The study was prepared based on Brazil's Second Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions.