Throughout the COP24 climate summit, Brazil urged all parties to work together to enable greater private-sector climate action. Brazil was constantly involved in negotiations to ensure COP24 delivered a workable toolbox to limit global warming. So we warmly welcome the positive outcome of COP24, including the agreement to keep working on a stronger global market mechanism for emission reductions.

Unfortunately, there have been several misrepresentations made about Brazil’s positions (Encouraging signs – but new rifts also exposed by hard-won deal at climate talks, 17 December), which do not help in the work ahead for all countries.

Brazil is absolutely opposed to double counting when it comes to carbon credits, and has consistently supported efforts to prevent double counting. We believe that emissions reductions generated under the sustainable development mechanism must be additional to the emissions-reductions targets made by the country where the reductions are generated.

This means that if the private sector develops a project and sells additional emissions reductions to any country, those reductions should be counted only towards the national targets of the purchasing country, with no impact on the targets of the country that hosted the project. If the purchasing country then on-sells those emissions reductions, they should absolutely be required to make an adjustment in respect of their national emissions targets. Otherwise, double counting will occur, which is exactly what Brazil and many other countries have sought to prevent.

Accurate representation of all countries’ positions is vital if the world is to make the necessary progress on climate change. Brazil of course has been a leader not just in global discussions on climate change, but also through its actual actions. We are already meeting our pre-2020 targets in 2018, and look forward to all parties who made pre-2020 commitments to deliver on them, as Brazil has done.

Thiago de Araujo Mendes

Secretary for climate change and forests, environment ministry, Brazil

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