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Brazil's Carbon Emissions Increased 7.8% in 2013

11/20/2014 - 08h50

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MARCELO LEITE
FROM SÃO PAULO

Bad news for the Rousseff administration and for the planet: Brazil's contribution to global warming increased 7.8% in 2013. This is the first increase in carbon emissions since 2008, reverting a trend falling since 2005.

The data is from the System of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimates (SEEG), which is maintained by the Climate Observatory. Four NGOs participated in the report: Imazon (soil use), Imaflora (agriculture), Iema (energy and industry) and Iclei (waste).

Brazilian carbon emissions had been falling since 2005 thanks to the rapid reduction of the deforestation of the Amazon.

In 2004, 27,800km2 of land was deforested. In 2012, by contrast, deforestation had fallen to 4,600km2, a reduction of 83.5%, though in 2013 the figure rose to 5,900km2, a 29% increase on the previous year.

Even so, this is the second lowest rate ever registered by the National Institute of Space Research (INPE), responsible for monitoring deforestation with the Prodes satellite. Compared to 2004, the reduction is still considerable: 79%.

The main reason for the poor result for last year is changes in the use of the soil (deforestation, essentially). This indicator increased 16.4% with the 29% increase in deforestation of the Amazon in the period from August 2012 to July 2013.

Energy and transport also made significant contributions to the increase in carbon emissions. With greater use of thermoelectric power stations and fossil fuels, along with increased consumption of gasoline and diesel, the sector increased its greenhouse gas emissions by 7.3%.

In all three cases - deforestation, the energy sector and transport - the increases can be attributed to policies adopted by the federal government, such as artificial maintenance of low fuel prices. After all, the increase in emissions of 7.8% was much greater than GDP growth in 2013 (2.5%).

The preliminary data from Prodes for the period between August 2013 and July of 2014 is likely to be published by the government this month or next. On October 19, during the election campaign, President Rousseff suggested that there would be a new reduction, but she did not provide figures.

However, there are strong indications that deforestation has grown again since August this year. The government has stopped publishing data from its system of monthly alerts (DETER), which will now produce figures only every three months.

An INPE report obtained by Folha, however, says that 1,626km2 of forest was destroyed in August and September - an increase of 122% when compared to the same months in 2013.

A program similar to Deter operated by Imazon, SAD, has also shown an increase in deforestation in the last three months (August, September and October).

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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