The agricultural sector is one of the main sectors of the economy that contribute to Brazil achieving the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 37% by 2025 and by 43% by 2030, during the 21st United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21), known as the Paris Agreement.
“In order to achieve these indices, the Country details its strategy, imputing individualized actions in the productive systems that, together, make up the Nationally Determined Contributions, the NDCs”, explains the Sustainability coordinator of the Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (CNA), Nelson Ananias Filho.
In December, CNA participates in the 24th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 24) in Poland, where obligations to comply with the Paris Agreement, which is expected to come into force in 2020, must be established.
“The rural producer is doing his part and we hope that in this COP the world will recognize the actions already undertaken and Brazil will adjust its NDC with responsibility, allowing the sustainable growth of the agricultural sector,” says Ananias Filho.
According to the book Tons de Verde, by the researcher of Embrapa Evaristo de Miranda, Brazil has 66.3% of native vegetation area, equivalent to 563.7 million hectares. Of these, 33.2% are inside private property. This percentage, based on information from the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), is greater than the total area of the 28 countries of the European Union.
In relation to food production, Brazil owns 7.57% of cultivated area, third lowest percentage of land use among the nine largest countries in the world, behind only Canada (4.7%) and Australia (4.57% %).
“These results were achieved thanks to the rural producers’ concern to invest in low carbon technologies, recovering pastures and increasing productivity without opening new areas,” says Filho.
On November 8th, the CNA will promote the workshop “Brazilian Agropecuária in the Paris Agreement”, with the presence of farmers, researchers and sector leaderships to elaborate a positioning of the sector for COP 24.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.