By Walter Schalka, President of Suzano.
If, overnight, we could end illegal deforestation in the Amazon and manage to trade the carbon avoided in the process, the country would have an additional US$10 billion per year to foster a sustainable, low-carbon economy. This is a resource that, if invested correctly, would promote a true revolution in improving the quality of life and generating income for Amazonian communities.
It is true that illegal deforestation in the Amazon will not be resolved overnight, but it is important to be clear that the potential generation of wealth through the carbon market is real. Just as the damage caused by extreme weather events, which are increasingly frequent in many parts of the world, is also real.
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals that some of the impacts of human activities on global temperatures are already irreversible. It is even more likely that the increase in global average temperature will reach 1.5 °C earlier than expected.OC compared to pre-industrial levels. Events such as prolonged droughts and floods are likely to intensify if concrete actions are not taken. And this must be done by reducing carbon emissions from now on, so that this challenge is not left to future generations.
It makes no sense for companies and governments to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 without ambitious short- and medium-term targets. We can no longer accept that promises to reduce emissions are made only to have companies and governments emit more than before the next minute.
Therefore, COP26 is an opportunity to regulate a regulated carbon market linked to the Paris Agreement, in which signatory countries committed to carbon reduction targets. The C modelap and Trade It presents itself as a viable alternative for reversing the carbon emissions curve to achieve public commitments – Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – and to drive the decarbonization of the global economy, both in terms of volume and timeframe.
As companies and governments are forced to meet their emissions targets, excess carbon reductions become a tradable asset for those who fail to meet their targets. The result will be a stimulus to investment in decarbonization, as carbon emission intensity will become a criterion for corporate competitiveness.
This is where Brazil's natural calling as a global leader in regenerative economy stands out, with significant implications for social development. Encouraging the Bioeconomy would not only contribute to climate change, but would also stimulate job creation and add more significant value to the production chain. It would therefore be an important driver for the country's sustainable development, just as investment in universal, quality education should be to enable a new, fairer and more egalitarian economy.
As an example of development based on the Bioeconomy, I would like to cite the generation of energy from biomass, one of the clean energy options that distinguishes Brazil from many other countries. It is already a reality in the pulp and paper sector, where sustainable tree planting creates opportunities in other markets, such as the development of textile fibers. In this case, decarbonization acts to replace products of fossil origin. But we are aware that we must go further.
The last decade was marked by the information technology race. The next decade is the bioeconomy and biotechnology race, in which the combination of Brazil's rich biomes associated with the capacity to generate technological solutions provides unparalleled competitive advantages, and that is why we need to be protagonists.
Brazil has the potential to emerge as a leading player in international geopolitics through a socially inclusive environmental agenda, as long as it positions itself on the right side of the debate. Therefore, it should announce a reduction in illegal deforestation in the Amazon in the short term, which would be the basis of our discussion.
Another pillar of the discussions at COP26 should be the construction of social and environmental agendas in a collaborative model. The challenge of climate change is intersectoral, international and intergenerational, and we will only be able to be proactive and ambitious enough if the logic of competitiveness is replaced by cooperation and partnership. In this journey, all actors who set out to build a low-carbon economy will have significant gains, in addition to supporting the construction of the necessary economic transition and the only possible journey. It is with this perspective that we must arrive at COP26.
