Three articles published by the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) bring analysis on relevant aspects of socio-environmental and climate policy in Brazil. The monitoring took place between 2019 and 2020 and gave rise to the series: “Monitoring the Brazilian NDC* under the Bolsonaro government”.
Access each of the articles below.
*Nationally determined contributions made under the Paris Climate Agreement (2015)
Pilot Program for REDD+ Payment for Results: benefiting those who preserve the forest?
By Alessandra Cardoso
The first article analyzes the Pilot Program for REDD+ Payment for Results, a pioneer experience in raising funds from international cooperation in the scope of compensation programs for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, the so-called REDD+.
This policy brief warns about the reformulation of the pilot program sent to the Green Climate Fund under the Bolsonaro government. In this reformulation, the purposes, scope and beneficiaries of the program were altered, promoting a change in the nature of the program from public policy to market incentive. The result is the redirection of internationally uncertified carbon credits for domestic markets.
Logistics infrastructure, agribusiness and climate
By Tatiana Oliveira
The second article analyzes the resumption of a project for the occupation and development of the Brazilian Amazon, with agribusiness and logistics infrastructure as two of its pillars. This policy brief relates the installation of a multimodal logistics complex in the district of Miritituba, in the state of Pará, to the recent processes of deforestation, fires and land grabbing, in one of the least anthropized regions of the Brazilian Amazon.
Environmental degradation and attack of the ways of life of native peoples, traditional and peasant communities are consequences of this model of economic exploitation. This scenario contributes to the consolidation of Pará as the subnational unit with the highest level of greenhouse gas emissions derived from changes in land use and the allocation of areas for cattle ranching and agriculture in the country.
Electricity and energy expansion: advances, risks and limitations of the proposed trajectories
By Pedro Bara Neto
The third publication brings an analysis between energy adaptation plans and the fulfillment of climate targets voluntarily adopted by Brazil under the Paris Agreement (2015). Taking the Ten Year Expansion Plan for Energy (PDE 2030) and the National Energy Plan (PNE 2050) as a basis, the advances, risks and limitations of the proposed trajectories for electric and energy expansion are addressed.
The text highlights the government’s lack of articulation to implement long-term plans for the improvement of the national matrix, as well as the efforts in the legislative scope to attack the environmental licensing rules in force, which is fundamental to guarantee the protection of territorial rights in areas of exploration of renewable, non-fossil sources.
This policy brief also refers the compensation of the shrinking use of oil in the energy matrix by natural gas, and of sugar cane by wind and solar energy, soybeans biodiesel, and lye. A very sensitive point identified is the introduction of soy as a raw material for the manufacture of biofuels, which lights up a warning from the socio-environmental and climatic point of view.
