Brazil gov’t sets targets to slash greenhouse gas emissions

The Brazilian government today (Nov. 8) enacted a resolution laying out the mandatory yearly targets for reducing greenhouse effect gas emissions in the production and trade of fuels. The goals are to be effective in the next ten years and are part of the country’s national biofuel policy RenovaBio.

RenovaBio comes under Brazil’s national energy policy and aims to help meet the country’s commitments in the Paris Agreement and promote the appropriate expansion of the production and use of biofuels in the Brazil’s energy network.

For this year, the resolution set as a mandatory target 24.86 million units of Decarbonization Credit (CBIO). In 2022, the target established is 35.98 million CBIO units issued by fuel producers and importers.

According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, one of the main tools in Brazil’s National Biofuels Policy, the CBIO is issued by producers or importers of biofuels, voluntarily certified, based on a rating for energetic and environmental efficiency stemming from this certificate, as well as the volume of biofuels traded in the domestic market. Each CBIO unit is equivalent to a ton of carbon dioxide equivalent not released into the atmosphere. Fuel distributors are required to obtain CBIO units as part of the policy.

The document also sets tolerance intervals, with a minimum and maximum limit for each target, to be brought into effect in 2023—a year for which the target was set at 42.35 million CBIO units, with a lower limit at 33.85 and upper limit at 50.85. Reductions are to continue increasing until they reach the expected target of 95.68 million CBIO units (lower limit of 87.17 and upper limit at 104.17) in 2031, the last year covered in this update of RenovaBio.