Maria Eduarda Ardinghi Brollo
Tradução: Ligia Payão Chizolini
As we saw in the first part of this text, the association between urban space and climate change has intensified in public discussions. One of the main points raised, beyond urban resilience, is the issue of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
However, as demonstrated by data collected in 2022 by the Greenhouse Gas Emission and Removal Estimates System (SEEG) of the Climate Observatory, the sectors contributing the most to gross emissions are “land use and forestry” and “agriculture,” both predominantly present in rural areas of cities.
Regarding the first sector, it is noteworthy that land use and forestry changes impact the process of emission and reabsorption of GHGs, significantly reducing, through deforestation, the natural rebalancing capacity of the gas system. Agriculture goes hand in hand with the first sector, often established in deforested areas in the Midwest and North of the country, and being a primary emitter in its activities.
This raises the question of whether Brazil's GHG reduction proposals align with our reality.
In terms of the most current GHG reduction proposals, the topics of electric vehicles and the carbon market seem to stand out. For electric vehicles, the response, when comparing the numbers, is simple: it is not a strategy that encompasses our reality of GHG emission and non-reabsorption. This does not mean that local and regional measures to improve fleets and reduce fossil fuel use are not crucial. They are. But, in isolation or even as the main proposal, they do not reflect on the impact sectors.
On the other hand, carbon market proposals seem, on the surface, to align with the presented numbers. Essentially, and in a very simplified manner, a carbon market allows actors with areas of reabsorption or emitting below a certain carbon emission quota to be financially compensated by actors who exceed this limit.
The fact is that, ideally, the carbon market model aligns with reducing deforestation and controlling emissions. However, the project approved at the end of last year in the Chamber of Deputies, PL 2148/15, soon shows that this connection is not the core of the presented policy. It does not directly address agribusiness nor is it accompanied by other transversal policies of better land use, environmental oversight, and agricultural reform, which would legitimize the tool in the Brazilian context.
Finally, the proposed carbon market reflects a problematic aspect that the (pseudo) solution of electric vehicles also imposes: the unlimited reproduction of a Eurocentric notion of sustainable development (Khalfan, 2023). In this sense, and considering the various commitments made by Brazil in the 2015 Paris Agreement, these “pop” solutions presented in public discussion as invincible are those applied and suggested by Global North countries and end up reinforcing a model of domination and coloniality (Mignolo, 2017) at the root of the excessive GHG emissions problem.
In this brief analysis, we identified that the popularly known solutions for GHG emissions in public discussions in Brazil do not align with our numbers and favor the metropolitan reality over the rural reality, where the main points of attention in emission and reabsorption of GHGs are found in the national reality.
It is also interesting to note that from the perspective of climate justice (Robinson, 2021), indigenous people, quilombolas, riverside dwellers, and the rural population suffer the most from the impact of climate changes, especially women, black and brown people in this reality. Thus, from the perspective of promoting a just and equitable energy transition, the rural space should be more centralized in discussions and proposed solutions.
Even from a budgetary standpoint, small rural municipalities have a smaller revenue reserve, with a higher rate of Rural Land Tax (ITR) collection than Urban Property Tax (IPTU), resulting in much smaller budget values compared to urban-profile municipalities (Leão, 2015).
Thus, the question of whether efforts to improve the GHG inventory in Brazil are focused on plausible solutions for our reality takes a dense and important turn, demonstrating that, for now, although the popular solutions presented should be debated and are relevant to combating climate change, we are far from reaching the core of the problem (and the solution) for climate change in Brazil.
References:
KHALFAN, Ashfaq et al. Climate Equality: A planet for the 99%. OXFAM International, 2023. Available at: https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/climate-equality-a-planet-for-the-99-621551/. Accessed: 18 Mar. 2024.
ROBINSON, Mary. Justiça climática: esperança, resiliência e a luta por um futuro sustentável. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 2021.
Mignolo, Walter. Colonialidade: o lado mais escuro da modernidade. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, 32(94), e329402. Epub June 22, 2017. https://dx.doi.org/10.17666/329402/2017
LEÃO, C. G. ITR e IPTU: o contraste entre as finalidades sociais e a gestão praticada. Unifal-mg.edu.br, 2015
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