Brazil will conditionally support a proposed climate change mitigation scheme that would compensate tropical countries for preserving their forests, reports Reuters.
Speaking at a news conference in Brasilia on Tuesday, Brazil’s Environment Minister Carlos Minc said that Brazil will back the U.N.’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanism at December’s climate talks in Copenhagen. But Brazil will push to limit the amount of emissions that an industrialized country can “offset” via REDD to 10 percent of its total emission reduction commitment. Brazil fears that allowing more offsetting would let the world’s largest historical polluters “off the hook” for their emissions from industrial activities while limiting economic growth in developing countries.
 Brazil’s proposed targets for reducing deforestation:
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“Rich countries still have to do their homework,” Minc was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Brazil aims to reduce its own emissions by 40 percent by 2020 relative to a business-as-usual scenario. If acheived, the country’s emissions in 2020 would be the same as 1994: 1.7 billion tons, or 19 percent below 2005 levels. Roughly half the emissions cuts would come from curbing deforestation in the Amazon. Brazil aims to reduce forest clearing 80 percent from a 1996-2005 baseline of 19,500 sq km (7,528 sq miles) over the next decade. Deforestation accounts for around three-quarters of Brazil’s total CO2 emissions and about 17 percent worldwide.
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