When considering major issues such as global climate and environment, we find it very important to establish solid facts regarding Brazil’s track record and strong sustainable development credentials.
Firstly, 60% of Brazilian vegetation is primeval; it is now as it has been since time immemorial, and as it was in the time of the European settlers. These well-established figures are acknowledged by the World Bank, OECD and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Brazil also has some of the strictest environmental laws in the world, which allows for the protection of the Amazon and the other diverse biomes of our country. For this reason, Brazilian farmers can never touch 20% of their own lands, or even up to 80% in forested areas.
As a result, farmers have been incentivized to invest in cutting-edge technology, research and other means of combining the powerful production needed to feed more than 1 billion people with sustainable practices. This legislation has been praised worldwide, including by the OECD
Our country is an environmental superpower in terms of preservation and working towards conservation. Brazil also aims for lawfulness and transparency in agribusiness - which mixes outstanding productivity rates with a small footprint, occupying less than 30% of our territory.
When it comes to clean energy, Brazil outranks every other major economy, having the cleanest renewable energy matrix of the G20. These unique and remarkable figures have been checked by OECD, Enerdata, UNEP-WCMC, JRC, FAO GAUL and VLIZ.
Brazil has effectively reduced its emissions, paving the way to have 84% of its electricity grid come from renewable energy sources such as biomass, wind, solar and hydroelectric power; and it will keep working towards meeting the goals for the climate agenda.
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, and the sixth most populous, yet our nation accounts for less than 1% of historic CO2 global emissions and for less than 3% of yearly CO2 global emissions. You can verify this data in Our World in Data and Climate Watch Data.
‘Per capita’ CO2 emissions since 1800:
Brazil’s commitment to sustainable development also involves an Urban Environmental Agenda. The government of Brazil is putting a lot of hard work into promoting greener cities and bringing clean water and air to millions of Brazilians living in highly populated urban centers.
Today, almost 35 million Brazilians have no clean water supply, and almost half of the population has no wastewater collection. A new regulatory framework for basic sanitation has been introduced to tackle these ongoing crises.
At COP 26 last year, Brazil delivered a decisive message when announcing her new climate goals:
- Carbon neutrality by 2050
- 50% GHG reduction by 2030
- End illegal deforestation by 2028
- Reforesting 44.46 million acres of vegetation by 2030
Brazil plans to eliminate deforestation by 2028. 16 mil. hectares of the Amazon were reforested, with a target of 12 mil. hectares by 2030. The Terraclass project that measures rainforest health through satellite shows 163k kilometers in recovery, an area equivalent to Tunisia.
It's important to respectfully point out that the common claim that the Amazon rainforest is the lungs of our planet is quite wrong: accounting for nearly half of global biogeochemical carbon absorption, the oceans, not forests, constitute the world's largest carbon sink.
It is also worth pointing out that the Brazilian Amazon is larger than Western Europe and is home to more than 30 million people who need and aspire to better lives, more dignified jobs, and have the right to seek development and progress just like any of us.
Therefore, our commitment to the preservation of the Amazon, for the benefit of Brazil and the world, is inseparable from the care for these people and needs to include a plan to foster a strong green economy able to generate better opportunities for everyone living in that area.
The Brazilian government, through the Ministries of the Environment and Economy, created the National Green Growth Program (PNCV) to consolidate Brazil as the world's largest ecological superpower, given its natural and economic characteristics.
Brazil has the greatest biodiversity on the planet and one of the largest oceanic areas and native forests in the world. These characteristics represent competitive advantages for the country in the leadership of a new global green agenda.
The PNCV's main objectives are to combine the reduction of carbon emissions, the conservation of forests and the rational use of natural resources with the generation of green jobs and economic growth, thus improving the living conditions of the Brazilian population.
Global Day of Parents is celebrated today, June 1. The date was instituted by the UN General Assembly in 2012. An opportunity to value the role of mothers and fathers around the world, who have the responsibility to educate, protect and care for the health of their children.
Fathers and mothers of all cultures and nationalities bear the responsibility of caring for their family and providing economic support, enabling children to grow up in a healthy environment – be it physical and emotional – surrounded by love, affection and harmony.
The role of families has gained more attention from the international community. Since the 1980s, the UN General Assembly has adopted resolutions in this period and instituted, for example, the International Year of the Family in 1994 and International Family Day every May 15.
The Brazilian government has launched an Action Plan for the Defense of the Rights of Indigenous Children and youths, fighting violence, drug addiction and sexual abuse in these demographics.
The initiative is composed of 38 actions and four axes: training and diagnosis; practical actions for violence reduction; revision of norms and law projects; and social mobilization and participation.
The plan will initially be implemented in indigenous communities of the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul,in the Center-west of the country, and in state of Roraima, located in Northern Brazil. The project will bring integrated actions involving different govt agencies
In another step towards consolidating Brazil's Strategic Space Systems Program, the Brazilian Air Force launched two new satellites today, using SpaceX's Falcon 9 two-stage rocket, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, USA.
The two new satellites, named Carcará I and Carcará II (after the bold Brazilian bird of prey), make up the Lessonia Project – 1, which aims to make a constellation of low-orbit satellites available to the Brazilian government for both civil and military use.
The images captured will be used to support the fight against drug trafficking, illegal mining, fires and deforestation - besides also being essential for cartographic updates, determination of river navigability and monitoring of natural disasters, among other capabilities.
Embraer, the Brazilian aerospace manufacturer of military and executive aircraft and the 3rd largest producer of civil aircraft in the world, is offering 1,000 new jobs in order to resume production, increase service, support product development, and open new businesses.
The volume of aircraft deliveries in 2022 is expected to increase from 15% to 25% compared to the previous year, and Embraer’s path to recovering its full potential shall continue for the next few years, as corroborated by studies presented by IATA.
Embraer ensured its “sustainability and engineering capacity in the face of the impacts caused by Covid-19 (…). A strategic plan (…) allowed the company to recover and resume a new growth cycle, which includes rehiring for operations”, says Embraer’s VP of PR Carlos Grinner.
The Museum of the Indian is a scientific and cultural organization dedicated to indigenous heritage preservation, based in Rio de Janeiro. Its collection consists of text and audiovisual material dating from the early 20th century that reveals the indigenous diversity in Brazil.
With the support of the Brazilian government, the Museum of the Indian had the initiative to expand the access of indigenous and non-indigenous people to linguistic collections and documents and strengthen the bases of scientific knowledge about languages and related cultures.
Last Year, the Museum created a web platform of multimedia dictionaries of indigenous languages (Japiim). It aims to provide a database and media on indigenous languages spoken in Brazil, with applications for cell phones and tablets.