Monday, March 8, 2010

Brazil and the US Sign Deforestation Agreement

Photo courtesy: www.berrygoodstuff4u.com/

Brazil and the United States have signed an agreement to work together to reduce deforestation in the rain forest. This agreement was arranged in early March as part of an effort to slow climate change as well.


On Wednesday March 3, 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed the agreement in Brasilia. The agreement states that Brazil and the US will establish a Climate Change Policy Dialogue, which is a group that will meet once a year and work towards developing and implementing pragmatic solutions and policies for reducing emissions and development.


Because the US and Brazil have not seen eye to eye on efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation, this agreement is a wonderful outbreak and will hopefully prove to be significant. When the agreement was first suggested Brazil was not interested. “Brazil is not interested in giving industrialized countries cheap carbon credits from protecting the Amazon if they are not going to stop building coal-fired power plants”, says William Boyd, a professor at the University of Colorado. He has worked on REDD policy issues for some time.


Brazil feels that the US needs substantial reductions in our own industrial emissions, and now the two countries have altered their stances. The US has been talking to Indonesia, which is the world’s second largest deforester and biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions from land use change, about the REDD strategies and tactics.

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