Brazilian Coalition contributes to the public consultation on the National Policy on Climate Change

The Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture sees with concern the draft Bill on the National Policy on Climate Change (PNMC in Portuguese acronym), which is available for public consultation until Saturday, December 4th.

The draft text erroneously proposes to repeal the current legislation on the matter, Law 12.187/2009, and weakens the principles, guidelines, commitments, and governance mechanisms that are key to guide the Brazilian climate policy. 

Furthermore, the draft bill reduces the participation of civil society and subnational governments in decision making related to the PNMC, centralizing governance in the Interministerial Climate Change and Green Growth Committee, whose framework is not further detailed – not even the concept of “green growth” is described in the draft. 

This is therefore a step backwards, considering that civil society, the academia, the private sector, and subnational governments, which are excluded by the proposed governance, are essential for the creation and promotion of sectorial actions for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

Among other critical points in the draft include:

• There is no mention of quantifiable targets for the reduction and neutralization of emissions – even those assumed by the country during the Glasgow Climate Conference (COP26), in November – focusing only on guidelines for reaching the targets;
• It is unclear what measures must be taken to achieve greenhouse gas emissions neutrality by 2050, or what policies will be adopted to halt illegal deforestation by 2030;
• The draft excluded the authorization for the establishment of the Brazilian Market for Emission Reduction (MBRE in Portuguese acronym), foreseen in the PNMC law of 2009;
• It also withdrew the determination for official financial institutions to provide specific credit and financing lines for carrying out actions and activities that meet the PNMC targets;
• Sectoral plans are defined as PNMC instruments, but there is no clear mention of the sectors that should elaborate plans for mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and each one has its own specific features. Among them are power generation and distribution, public transportation, interstate passenger and cargo transportation systems, converters and consumer durables industry, the fine and base chemical industries, the pulp and paper industry, the construction industry, mining, health services, and agriculture and livestock;
• In line with the agreement signed at COP 26, it must be clear that the gradual substitution of fossil fuels will be instrumental to government action in the PNMC, as well as the incentive to renewable energy development. However, biofuels themselves, of which Brazilian biomass has great potential, are only generically mentioned in the new draft text;
• The Bill proposes a measure, in theory unconstitutional, by establishing that, for the execution of the PNMC, the States and the Federal District must submit to the Federal Executive Branch the state and district plans on climate change. The provisions harm the principle of the federative agreement foreseen in Article 18 of the Federal Constitution: the federal entities have autonomy and should not be obliged to submit their projects and political programs to the federal government.

The Brazilian Coalition considers that the PNMC law of 2009 already establishes the appropriate parameters for the national policy on climate change. It is desirable to direct the effort to its implementation and to updating the described targets, and not to repealing the law. Hence, the Coalition supports that the new bill, a draft of which was released by the Ministry of the Environment, should not be presented.

The debate about updating the PNMC is underway in the federal legislative branch, through bills already approved in the Senate, and which now go to the House of Representatives. The Coalition defends having this debate continue in Congress, with the due participation of the different sectors of society to improve the proposals currently at stake. It is important to emphasize that the new PNMC version must encourage reforestation actions and recovery of degraded areas as a joint and complementary effort to combat deforestation.

If, however, the draft is taken to the legislature, the Brazilian Coalition recommends that it proceed after a series of content adjustments and insertions, as presented here. These suggestions, however, do not represent the movement’s endorsement of the proposal presented by the Ministry of the Environment.

Find here the contributions sent by the Brazilian Coalition to the public consultation, in Portuguese.