CEBDS brought together climate change experts on February 19, in Rio de Janeiro, to gather, taking into account Brazilian characteristics and needs, subsidies for the construction of society's objectives (also called must-haves) for this area – one of the nine defined as priorities in the project Action 2020. At the meeting, five priority themes were identified and should serve as recommendations for defining business solutions: renewable energy, cities, agriculture, forests and financing for a low-carbon economy.
The meeting was attended by COPPE-UFRJ professors Emilio La Rovere and Suzana Kahn; PUC-RJ professor Sérgio Besserman; forestry engineer Tasso Azevedo; the superintendent of the Sustainable Amazon Foundation, Virgílio Viana; and the head of the Earth System of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), José Marengo.
Recommendations were developed at the meeting and will be included in the text of the must-haves Brazilian Climate Change Action 2020, to be discussed with member companies. These include increasing the efficiency of energy transmission and use in industry, transportation and buildings; supporting the development of studies and initiatives that minimize the impacts of climate change in the cities where the companies operate and in their operations; encouraging the use of good agricultural practices capable of increasing carbon stocks and reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and implementing inventories on the forest footprint of products and services.
“The first stage of the construction of the must-haves Brazilians expect to listen to science and understand which business solutions can be incorporated to make it possible to achieve the must-haveglobal”, explains Marina Grossi, president of CEBDS. must-have for Climate Change, agreed globally, is that of limit global temperature rise to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. The leading role that the business sector must play in the process of changing the global scenario in the medium and long term, when it comes to climate change, was highlighted and reinforced by experts. Within the project, however, the big difference is listening to and understanding society's desires and thus creating business solutions (measurable, scalable and replicable), which move towards the defended goal. “The Action 2020 project is a set of actions that outline a path until 2050, where the global temperature increase is set at 2ºC. With this project, the private sector ends up putting itself ahead of the public sector. Many goals can be added to those of the National Climate Change Plan, but speaking directly to companies”, says Emilio La Rovere.
An important and crucial point for the success of the project, the construction and monitoring of metrics generated debate among participants. For Suzana Kahn, without proper monitoring, there is no way of knowing whether companies will be committed to meeting their goals by 2020. The connection between the Action 2020 goals and national plans related to climate change was also emphasized by Tasso Azevedo. “2020 will develop business goals that should be in the National Climate Change Plan, but from the perspective of companies,” defined Tasso, highlighting the relevance of the largest business and global agreements at COPs. “If the COP agreement in Lima this year (in December 2014, in Peru) results in Earth's limits of 2ºC above pre-industrial levels, it would be great for leveraging companies' goals,” he said.
Action 2020 and public policies
An important characteristic of Ação 2020, understood by experts, is the political force that the project should imply, reinforcing the need for public-private partnerships. “Companies ‘buying’ the ideas of Ação 2020 will have enormous transformative power. First, because we are talking about major companies, and second, because this entire process has enormous potential for innovation, in addition to sending an important political signal to the government,” observed Virgílio Viana. For Sérgio Besserman, without public policies, the private sector will not commit to this level, and cannot. “There is no point in companies acting only to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The watchword is to adapt. But this is not the only thing that guarantees a reduction in emissions; public policies are an important driver for forcing these goals.”
