O desmatamento é responsável pelas maiores emissões de gases de efeito estufa no Brasil (Vinicius Mendonça/Ibama)

By Marcos Felipe Sousa, for NINJA Collaborative Coverage at COP26

The results shown in the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveal that future generations’ survival is threatened. From the increase of 1.09 °C since the pre-industrial period. Approximately 1.07 °C of this is credited to human interference.
There is no longer any way of ignoring the fact that there is a major problem to be faced. The consequences of climate change are increasingly noticeable in our daily lives, given the occurrence of extreme phenomena such as heatwaves, rainfall, rising sea levels, and other events related to climate disasters.
The scientific consensus on the impacts of climate change demarcates the urgent need for structural changes in our productive and economic system and States’ and individuals’ efforts to limit global warming.

This leads us to reflect on the causes and the individual and collective responsibilities to mitigate the climate crisis. It is essential to historically contextualize and outline these individual and collective responsibilities to understand the trajectory of the reasons that led us to this moment. And mainly in a differentiated way.

Most polluting countries

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in 1992, already pointed out that the largest emitters of greenhouse gases —driving global climate warming— were the developed countries, the wealthiest countries on the globe.
And it was structured on the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities.” That means that the parties to the international climate change agreement would be responsible according to their capabilities.
According to the ranking prepared by Carbon Brief that highlighted the countries that have emitted the most polluting gases to the global climate, the US, China, and Russia lead the list with the highest accumulation of emissions from 1850 to 2021.
The survey was based on the analysis of fossil fuel burning, deforestation, and land use. Based on this criterion, Brazil remains in the fourth position.
As revealed by a BBC report, this goes against the strategy of the Brazilian government in the international climate agreements by establishing that the collection of climate control targets should be directed to rich countries.
However, the causes of the emission of pollutant gases are involved in the climate issue and compose social and economic problems and affect the countries and people of the global South in different ways.

Deforestation

Incêndio florestal e desmatamento na Terra Indígena Alto Rio Guamá no Pará (Cícero Pedrosa Neto/Amazônia Real)

As an example, the Carbon Brief points out that 85% of the tons of C02 emitted by Brazil since 1850 is the result of cutting down forests. This is one of the main problems for maintaining the life and existence of indigenous peoples, quilombolas, and riverbank dwellers in the Amazon. As examples of serious consequences, there are land conflicts and the illegal occupation of public properties.

Rampant capitalism

The industrialization growth and the establishment of the current global economic system based on capital accumulation and the concentration of wealth have accelerated the assumptions for climate emergencies. Elmar Altvater, in the study “Fossil capitalism and its social and natural environment,” exposed that the dynamics of capitalism was established by certain precepts, such as: “the European rationality of world domination; the transformation in the movement to a market economy; the dynamics of money in the social form of capital; and the use of fossil energy.”
That means that establishing the Western world’s way of life and economy came about through the intensive use of natural resources, such as fossil energy. It is the globally wealthiest countries that are responsible for the large-scale exploitative use of these resources. Despite this exploitation of natural resources beyond their territories, causing social and environmental problems for other countries. A prevalent reality in the countries of the global South.

State-owned and private companies

In a study released in 2019 by the Climate Accountability Institute, 20 companies (state-owned and private) would account for 35% of carbon dioxide emissions from 1965 to 2017, all of which are oil, natural gas, and coal producers.
Another recent study released by the World Inequality Lab empirically demonstrated that the wealthiest are the main polluters. According to this study, the richest 10% of the world’s population were the main contributors to the planet’s carbon emissions, primarily among those from the wealthiest countries.

Natural resource exploitation

Besides the responsibility for the emission of pollutants, these are also among those who have contributed the most to the loss of global biodiversity. In a report issued by the Third World Network, it was shown that the wealthiest industrialized countries have a climate debt due to the excessive use of natural resources worldwide. The US would be responsible for 40% of climate change and the EU for 29%.
This generates a loss of biodiversity and inequalities that intersect between countries, societies, classes, races, and genders, not restricted only to the climate issue. Even though the wealthiest countries, companies, and individuals are at the top of the ranking of gas emitters contributing to the climate emergency, they still centralize and direct the international climate debates and agreements, as is being done from the carbon market talks, to name one of the recent climate change mechanisms.

Agribusiness

Although Brazil is not on the same economic and industrial level as the countries of the global North, the government also has a critical responsibility in the face of climate emergencies.
The globally exported developmental model, which also influences the decision-making in the countries of the global South, although in a differentiated way in the US and the EU, has left its footprints. Mainly in the Amazon.
Contemporarily, the expansion of the agricultural and livestock frontier, the infrastructure for the logistics of services and products for export, mining, and the development projects led by the Brazilian State, which contributed significantly to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, all stand out.

Anti-environmental agenda

Following the inauguration of the Jair Bolsonaro administration in Brazil, an anti-environmental agenda, the dismantling of regulatory agencies, the connection with rural groups and agribusiness sectors also contributed to this process. In 2021, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) denounced the current president at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the genocide of indigenous peoples and crimes against humanity and the environment.

Protesto durante o Acampamento Levante da Terra, em Brasília (Foto Mídia Ninja)

Based on data provided by the Climate Observatory through the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimating System (SEEG), it was shown that Brazilian emissions grew by 9.5%. In comparison, the rest of the world dropped by about 7%.

This further reinforces the climate disaster that Brazil has caused in recent years. According to this report, in 2020, the agriculture, livestock, and energy sectors were the main responsible, with 27% and 18% of emissions, followed by industrial processes and waste with 5% and 4%.

Leading this emissions ranking is the Land Use Change and Forestry category. These generated 998 million tons of C02 in 2020, being 93% of the gross emissions related to deforestation in the Amazon biome. The figures reflect the increase in deforestation in the Amazon in the last decade. According to the Climate Observatory, gross emissions increased 23.7% from 2019 to 2020, following the wake of deforestation in the Cerrado and the Amazon.

Although we are all responsible for the crises resulting from climate change, mainly because we are involved in the chains resulting from specific productive sectors, it is remarkable that some countries, transnational companies, sectors, and individuals have been at the receiving end of greenhouse gas emissions.

It is also important to stress again that this impact is generated differently for different groups and territories. The wealth accumulation from the exploitation of the Amazon’s natural resources that create changes in the country’s hydrological cycle, in rainfall capacity, for example, has unequal and interconnected repercussions with socio-environmental issues.

The dynamics of deforestation and fires in the Amazon region are linked to the illegal logging, mining, dispossession of indigenous territories, the looting of public property through land grabbing, an increase in respiratory diseases, and direct violence against those who have historically occupied forests, rivers, fields, and cities in the Amazon.

When considering alternatives to limit climate emergencies, it is essential not to homogenize those responsible in the vague sense of humanity. On the other direction, by outlining those who have contributed the most to this process and those who are directly and indirectly impacted the most, by discussing the socio-environmental inequalities at all, being the latter the most affected ones, who are supposed to lead the international debates and agreements for effective global climate governance.

 @MidiaNinja and @CasaNinjaAmazonia make special coverage of COP26. Follow the tag #ninjanacop on social media!

Traduzido por José Luiz Corrêa.