UK and Brazil Launch Working Group on Climate Change and Establish Dialog on Sustainable Development
07 March 2006
UK Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim today signed a joint statement establishing the UK-Brazil High-Level Dialogue on Sustainable Development and a Working Group on Climate Change.
The signing, which took place in London as part of Brazilian President Lula’s three-day State Visit, establishes a structured framework for bilateral cooperation on a range of sustainable development issues, including climate change, biodiversity and forest governance. It follows similar agreements signed with China and India.
The Working Group on Climate Change will focus on five areas:
The promotion of low carbon technology globally, including increasing the contribution of sustainable bioenergy to the global energy mix. The UK and Brazil are currently conducting a joint scoping study on the potential for ethanol from sugar cane in Southern Africa. Brazil has also agreed to host the follow-up to the Workshop on Innovation and Energy Research, which brings together representatives from the G8 plus five developing countries and research agencies.
Improving the scientific collaboration on assessing the impacts of climate change—he UK’s Hadley Centre, Exeter, is involved in a key project to identify dangerous climate change for Amazonian Ecosystems.
Exchange views on key policy issues relating to possible forms of long-term cooperative action on climate change, including further discussion on the +5’s proposal for a new model on international cooperation on climate change and the potential role of carbon capture and storage and forest sinks within future climate change discussions.
The development of Brazil’s leading role in the emerging Latin American carbon market, including promoting links through UK and Brazilian financial markets to improve conditions for investment in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which will improve access to investment and cleaner technologies. There is also agreement to explore a program for CDM investment. Brazil is currently the UK’s second biggest investment partner in terms of projects.
Dialogue on the links between climate change, poverty eradication and social development.
The key themes in the UK-Brazil Sustainable Development Dialogue are:
Natural Resource Protection and Sustainable Management, including increased dialogue with Brazil on biodiversity issues, support for regional and international measures on sustainable forest management and enhanced law enforcement.
Climate Change, and Energy for Sustainable Development.
Sustainable Consumption and Production.
Poverty and Inequality.
Capacity Building and Institutional Development.
Science for Sustainable Development.
Resources:
Full text of the Statement
Dialogue? Does this mean Brazil is finally going to stop the slash and burn destruction of the Amazon? Talk is cheap.
Posted by: James White | 07 March 2006 at 07:34 PM
I'm glad to see the UK take a leading role in promoting sustainable development in the world. They understand, economy and ecology both come from the same root word ECO, meaning home. That is the complete opposite of Bush and company's belief that, "We have to destroy the planet or it will hurt our economy."
Posted by: James White | 07 March 2006 at 07:47 PM