Sao Paulo may cut CO2 emissions by 30 percent

The economic capital city of Brazil is willing to act strongly on global warming. To do so, a law might be passed to cut its greenhouse gases emissions by up to 30 percent by 2012.

This is a brilliant thing. It occurs as rich nations are wondering if they could slash their own emissions by the same proportion, but by 2020… this makes me think about our leaders’ determination.

Indeed, if a city like Sao Paulo can do it, why couldn’t we ? We obviously waste much more energy than them an thus can save more in terms of proportion.

According to the article by Treehugger :

The city government of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and commercial capital, is considering legislation that would reduce its carbon emissions by 30% in the next four years. If approved, the project will involve changes in transportation and waste management.

Pushed by that announcement, the State government of Sao Paulo has marked its calendar in 2020, with an ambition to reduce at least 20% emissions by then.

(…) According to the publication Estado de Sao Paulo, the project to reduce emissions in the city has been in debate since the beginning of last year, and it’s expected to get approved by the Municipal Council before the end of 2008 (as there are municipal elections this October).

The reference point for the emissions will be 2005, when they were calculated at 15 million tons a year. The plan includes measures in transportation and waste management, two of the city’s biggest problems.

Points in the plan include a measure that establishes that all large buildings and malls would have to install systems to separate trash in order to get licenses and approval for operations. Another initiative includes a payment for “environmental services” to those people who own land and who promote the conservation of their territory. There are also controls to motorcycles and a point that says public transport will have to reduce the use of fossil fuels 10% per year starting in 2008.

The newspaper informs that if the law is approved, Sao Paulo will be the first city in Brazil to have a plan against climate change and is calling it “the Brazilian California.”

(…) The state government of Sao Paulo had avoided to make statements and commit to set a date and a goal for carbon emissions until now, informs Folha de Sao Paulo. But with the municipal announcement the pressure grew and it announced a goal of reducing at least 20% of emissions by 2020.

According to the newspaper, there will be a three-year term for the State to create an inventory of its emissions, and then authorities will establish a fixed goal that will not be less than 20% in relation to the emissions registered in 1990.

Sao Paulo state is the largest state in Brazil in population and economic production, with the country’s biggest industrial park.

I wonder how all this may turn out. Be sure that I will keep you updated with the development of this project. So for this and for much more, stay tuned !

3 thoughts on “Sao Paulo may cut CO2 emissions by 30 percent”

  1. Many thanks for your comment Kiashu, it is always a pleasure to read from you ! 🙂

    It may not be very ambitious, but it is still much more ambitious than what we have here in Europe where our leaders think about 20 percent reductions of GHG emissions by 2020…

    Anyway, we will see what will come out of that !

  2. I think you’ll find that Sao Paolo is reacting to similar slackness from the federal government of Brazil.

    All across the West, while federal governments do nothing, state or provincial governments do a little more, and cities and towns and villages do more still. It’s interesting that the less people they represent, the closer the elected officials are to the people, the stronger the response they propose.

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