Climate change is characterized by a gradual increase in global temperatures, resulting in rising sea levels and changing precipitation patterns, as well as an increase in the frequency, magnitude, and intensity of extreme weather events like droughts and floods. Since global warming was first recorded in 1985 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), it has become evident that the cause of this phenomenon is long-standing and results from atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. These gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), occur naturally but are also produced by human activities, notably the burning of fossil fuels.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by the WMO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The IPCC has set rules for measuring greenhouse gas emissions in all UN member states, compiling information, convening meetings of countries (the Conferences of Parties, or COPs) to reach agreements, and recommending policies to address this issue.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Brazil
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Brazil are not strongly related to energy production but rather to land use change (deforestation) and agriculture, which account for 73% of the country’s total emissions. While the energy sector was responsible for 76% of global GHG emissions, Brazil’s energy matrix accounted for 18% of the country’s gross emissions in 2020. In Brazil, nearly half of the energy matrix comes from renewable sources.
The factors causing fuel combustion are related to economic activity in the broadest sense: production, trade, and consumption. Therefore, designing a mitigation scenario requires first identifying the production sectors that generate GHG emissions.
Identifying Critical Sectors for Decarbonization
This document is part of the research project “Decarbonization and Industrial Policy: Challenges for Brazil,” conducted by the Research Group on Industry and Competitiveness at the Institute of Economics of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The goal is to identify the leading emitting sectors in Brazil, assess their direct and indirect emissions, and discuss the significance of this approach for the design and implementation of green industrial policies.
Green Industrial Policies
Green industrial policies require investments, incentives, regulations, and political support to promote and facilitate the development of environmental technologies. Unlike other environmental actions, green industrial policies focus on restructuring and transforming the economy into a green economy.
Challenges and Opportunities
Industrial restructuring should prioritize sectoral linkages alongside multiple targets. The interdependence of sectors in an economy, characterized by complex input-output relationships, means that any initiatives implemented in a particular industry are likely to impact others.
Conclusion
The selected sectors share a common feature often overlooked in green taxonomies: their pattern is marked by direct rather than indirect emissions. The transition to net-zero emissions by 2050 must embrace the concept of industrial clusters in the selected sectors.
References
The bibliographic references include studies from institutions such as the Observatório do Clima, the IPCC, and other relevant research on decarbonization and industrial policies.