BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil wants historic  emissions to be the basis for greenhouse gas pollution targets,  slated for discussion during December climate talks in  Copenhagen, Brazil’s top climate negotiator said in an  interview.

Jose Miguez, who heads Brazil’s Interministerial Commission  on Global Climate Change, said Brazil is not yet proposing  targets for emissions cuts under the second phase of the Kyoto  Protocol because developed nations should take the lead.

“The greenhouse effect is not caused by emissions, it is  caused by the accumulation of emissions in the atmosphere,” he  said. “We are proposing that the second period of (Kyoto  Protocol) commitments be based on the historic responsibilities  of each country.”

Miguez said China, India and South Africa will back the  historic emissions proposal in the United Nations talks aimed  at reining in warming that the U.N. climate panel says will  cause more droughts and crop failures and raise sea levels.

In China, which scientists say has surpassed the United  States as the world’s biggest carbon polluter, a state think  tank this year proposed a greenhouse gas trading plan to  reflect the historic emissions of rich and poor nations.

Miguez said Brazil opposes “carbon intensity” proposals  that measure emissions per dollar of GDP because they favour  bigger economies and risk allowing continued increases in  global emissions as economies grow.

“It’s the proposal backed by the U.S., Japan and Germany,  it’s good for countries with big GDPs,” said Miguez.
Brazil will play a key role in the December negotiations  for the 2008-2012 period of the Kyoto Protocol because of  Amazon rain forest deforestation. Some 20 percent of greenhouse  gas emissions caused by humans are linked to deforestation.

The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has  promised to halve Amazon destruction over the next decade.  Miguez said that deforestation releases 700 million tonnes of  carbon dioxide per year, or about half Brazil’s total  emissions.

Lula last month said Brazil was open to adopting targets  for greenhouse gas emissions if rich countries did more to curb  climate change.
Conservation International yesterday said the number of  rare plant species unique to Brazil is four times higher than  the government has estimated and argued for greater  environmental protection measures.

Environmental groups have increasingly eyed the possibility  of using Brazil’s rain forest for forestry-based carbon offset  projects under the U.N. Clean Development Mechanism, or CDM,  but Miguez says this is unlikely under current conditions.

Brazil opposes selling credits through a scheme known as  Reduced Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation (REDD),  in which developed countries buy rights to carbon stored in  trees as they grow to offset their own emissions.

Selling emissions credits from such projects would increase  total atmospheric carbon, Miguez said, because ensuring forests  remain standing would only keep carbon out of the atmosphere  until the trees die and release it again.

“Our position is that we’re opposed to carbon markets for  preventing deforestation,” he said. “People confuse this by  saying we want to continue deforestation, which is false.”

He said REDD projects would also assign higher land values  to states where the Amazon is being used for cattle farming or  soy cultivation, he said, effectively rewarding Brazilian state  governments that have done the least to protect forests.

REDD projects should be done without tradable carbon  emissions through direct financing mechanisms, he said, such as  the Amazon fund Brazil created last year that has already  received a $1 billion donation from Norway.

Brazil supports carbon projects for reforestation of  degraded Amazon areas, a methodology approved by the U.N.’s  carbon offset program, but those projects are stalled because  Europe has not allowed for trade of such credits.

This is partly on concern that replanted forests could be  cut down after the credits were already sold.
“Basically it’s a question of liability,” he said. “If  someone comes along and cuts down the forest, what happens to  the carbon credits?”
Brazil is the world’s third-largest seller of carbon  credits through the CDM, with some 400 projects either approved  or in the pipeline. CDM projects in operation have cut Brazil  emissions by 7 percent, Miguez said.

Around 25 percent of approved projects are agricultural  methane collection operations mostly for pork or cattle  businesses, according to U.N. data. Another quarter are biomass  energy projects, with a heavy focus on cellulosic ethanol.