Brazil sets pace in climate sprint - but wants the West to pay

Plan to slash emissions unveiled as minister says rich world's urgency 'goes missing' on money

Brazil is preparing to assume the presidency of UN climate negotiations at a summit in the Amazon next year. Getty Images

Brazil announced plans on Wednesday to cut its carbon footprint "far beyond what could be expected" to set the pace at UN climate talks, but told The National it will not join rich countries in financing the world's green efforts.

The home of the Amazon rainforest hopes to to slash emissions by two-thirds compared to 2005 levels within a decade, in a package of green policies including "zero deforestation" handed to UN officials at the Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan.

It makes Brazil one of three countries along with the UAE and Britain to have set a new target before a February deadline. As host of Cop30 next year, Brazil said it wants to be "an example and a major player" as pressure grows on governments to submit bold plans.

Brazil "has gone from denial to leadership and protagonism in fighting climate change," Vice President Geraldo Alckmin said on Wednesday as he unveiled the plans. The 44-page blueprint said they went far beyond "what could be expected based on the country’s historical responsibility for global temperature rise".

Foreign investors are asked to help pay for Brazil's plans, at a summit where the world is trying to agree a financial package potentially worth more than $1 trillion for poorer countries. The US wants rising economies to start contributing to the bill, reflecting shifts since a UN rulebook were drawn up in 1992.

But asked by The National whether Brazil could also step up a league by paying into global climate funds, Climate Secretary Andre Correa do Lago said it was "very hard to think" that developing countries should start paying when the rich world had fallen short of a previous $100 billion target.

"What we expect is that developed countries establish what the resources are that they will ensure to developing countries," he said. "This is is in a context where developed countries insist there’s a great climate urgency. However, when we talk about resources, climate urgency is not applicable.

"In other words, there’s no urgency in getting resources for developing countries to be able to do away with their climate challenge." He said finance talks were taking place "within the rules" of previous UN texts that say any contributions from developing nations are voluntary.

Under the 194-nation Paris Agreement, there is a shared goal of capping global warming at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, but it is up to each country to decide how it will help achieve it with plans known as nationally determined contributions.

All eyes will be on big polluters such as China, India and the US, which may quit the process under Donald Trump's second presidency. The UN warns that even if all existing plans are implemented in full, temperatures would rise 2.6°C by 2100.

With so much at stake, participants in the Cop29 summit in Baku are being intensively lobbied over the contents of what are called NDCs for short. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organisation, called on Wednesday for the plans leading up to 2035 to have a “strong health focus”.

“Many of you have heard me say that the climate crisis is a health crisis, and I will keep saying it until the message gets through,” Dr Tedros told delegates at Cop29 in Azerbaijan. “Human health is the most compelling argument for climate action, and climate action delivers massive benefits for health.”

Climate activists also want plans submitted by rich countries such as the US, Britain, and EU members to include financial pledges to address their “climate debt”, said Rachel Jackson of lobby group Corporate Accountability. “We would be looking for commitments to actively do no harm, make reparations and repair harm in all aspects of climate action,” she told The National. It is hoped that the new financial pledge being negotiated in Baku could allow developing countries to set more ambitious goals

Cop29 in Azerbaijan – in pictures

The UAE's new plan sets a target of cutting emissions 47 per cent in the next decade from a 2019 baseline, picking up the pace from a previous 40 per cent target. Countries are asked to draw on what was agreed in Dubai last year, such as a pledge to treble renewable energy, in preparing their new national plans. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told an event on Africa that the new plans “must contribute to the global energy transition goals agreed at Cop28".

Britain was second to name a figure, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced from the Baku podium that the UK will aim to cut emissions 81 per cent from 1990 levels by 2035. He said his Labour government was determined to “seize the opportunities of tomorrow”. The UK's top negotiator in Baku, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, said the aim was to “encourage others to show ambition” with a plan based on clean electricity, better-insulated homes, heat pumps and cutting air pollution.

Campaigners are awaiting more details on sector-by-sector targets. Tim Wainwright, the head of charity Water Aid, said Britain should put more money into preparing for extreme weather globally “if Keir Starmer is serious about showing climate leadership”.

Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva described the plan unveiled in Baku as "a new paradigm for the socio-economic development of our country". She said the sums of money to be provided to the developing world "have to be of the order of trillions".