Brazil will honor its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 14-19 percent from 2005 levels despite the failure of this month’s climate meeting in Copenhagen to establish binding limits on emissions, reports Reuters.
Tuesday President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed a law that requires Brazil to reduce emissions by 36-39 percent from projected 2020 levels. Roughly half the reduction would come from slowing Amazon deforestation, which accounts for more than sixty percent of Brazil’s CO2 emissions. The rest would come from improved energy efficiency in construction, farming, and industry. Brazil will also continue to rely heavily on sugar cane ethanol, which has been shown to have the best energy balance relative to other biofiels that are presently produced at scale.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, as a developing county, Brazil is not obligated to limit its emissions.
