US, European Union and UK raise pollutant reduction targets by 2030

The United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom announced new targets for reducing carbon dioxide at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), which began this Monday (1) in Glasgow, Scotland, said the columnist by CNN Brazil Lourival Sant’Anna.

The announcements took place on the same day that Brazil announced a 50% reduction target for greenhouse gases by 2030 – the previous target was 43%.

“The United States increased from 26% to 50% [sua meta de redução de gases estufa até 2030]; the European Union from 28% to 55% and the United Kingdom from 68% to 78%. While Brazil increases from 43% to 50%”, said Sant’Anna.

According to the columnist, despite the announcements, it is not a consensus among other large economies to drastically reduce their emissions of polluting gases. China, India, Saudi Arabia and Russia are trying to leave the key year for reducing emissions to 2060.

“There is resistance from China, India, Saudi Arabia, Russia who are major emitters and whose economies are anchored in fossil energies such as coal, oil and gas. In the final communiqué, they try to reach zero net emissions only in the middle of the century, because China aims to be in 2060”, he said.

weather villains

Despite the US having announced its intention to increase the goal, the country can still be considered one of the villains of the climate, as well as China, Russia and Saudi Arabia, in Santana’s view. Brazil also received the penalty, especially for the increase in deforestation in the country. So much so that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will not participate in COP26.

“COP26 has several villains. US President Joe Biden cited China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. I could have cited India, a big user of coal. But as India is a strategic ally of Joe Biden, they have a big program to extract ethanol from sugarcane, which we [Brasil] we could be in this situation, but we didn’t take advantage of this opportunity in April”.

The Brazilian ad is an attempt to change the image of a polluter, but the country will have to prove that it is capable of reaching the new goal, according to the columnist.

“UK Ambassador Peter Wilson told us: we want to see the year-by-year plan on ending illegal deforestation by 2030; this is our biggest Achilles heel,” he said.

“We will have to make this big effort in the Amazon and create alternatives to generate income for more than 20 million Brazilians who live in the Amazon. [Para termos acesso aos] 100 billion dollars [dos países ricos] for these projects, we also have to have sustainable development projects in Brazil”, added the columnist.