The country's commitment to adopting absolute targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, announced by President Dilma Rousseff during a United Nations (UN) conference in New York, is significant. This is the assessment of We Mean Business, an international coalition of more than 200 companies from around the world, coordinated in Brazil by the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS). The private sector also recognizes significant progress in specific areas, such as renewable energy. However, with regard to both the global target and others, it sees the defining of the means by which these targets will be implemented as the main critical point for Brazil.
For CEBDS and its We Mean Business signatory partners, it will be essential to define appropriate rules for implementing these measures to ensure that the country achieves its proposed objectives. The private sector is willing and committed to working alongside the government to make Brazil's ambition a reality, effectively contributing to the resumption of more sustainable economic growth and paving the way for a low-carbon Brazilian economy.
"We believe that the participation of the business sector is essential for all the proposed goals to be not only implemented, but also monitored, and become reality. President Dilma's announcement should be read as a starting point, not the end point, for the country to resume its growth in more sustainable terms and develop a low-carbon economy," says Marina Grossi, president of CEBDS. The new agreement should contain mechanisms that promote the generation of new technologies and technology transfer between developed and developing countries, fostering emissions reductions.
Despite the current political and economic climate, the country's business leaders believe that the shift toward a low-carbon economy can help put Brazil back on the path to recovery, creating new waves of sustainable development, especially in areas where the country has competitive advantages.
See the full document: Brazilian INDC
