EMISSIONS
Brazil is sitting pretty at COP kickoff, boasting major emissions reduction

Brazil managed a substantial reduction in its 2024 greenhouse gas emissions. Photo: Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom/EBC
After months of the Brazilian government’s climate credentials being brought into question, members of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration can be excused for looking smug when they open the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém on Monday.
That is thanks to two pieces of data released over the last week, showing that not only did Brazil manage to reduce deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado by 11% last year, but also that the country’s overall gross greenhouse gas emissions dropped 16.7% in 2024 — its largest reduction in 15 years.
But there are fears that the benefits of the current strategy of controlling deforestation may have been exhausted, and that even with..

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