Notice

Joint Brazil-UK statement on International Climate Cooperation

Published 22 August 2024

Joint Statement on International Climate Cooperation by the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Brazil and the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero of the United Kingdom

The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Ms. Maria Laura da Rocha, and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Brazil, Ms. Marina Silva, hosted, on August 20 and 21, 2024, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero of the United Kingdom, Mr. Ed Miliband. 

Ministers re-affirmed their countries’ commitment to lead by example on the international stage in addressing the global challenges to achieve sustainable development, the global climate crisis, halting and reversing forest loss and biodiversity loss, promoting energy transitions and enabling just and inclusive ecological transformations. The Ministers are united in their commitment to taking action in this critical decade to limit global warming to 1.5° C this century and build resilience to current and future impacts of the climate crisis, as well as fulfilling the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.

Brazil-UK Green and Inclusive Growth Partnership

The authorities reiterate that they will continue to work together under the framework of the Brazil-UK Partnership on Green and Inclusive Growth, which commits the UK and Brazil to strengthening collaboration and dialogue across five pillars, including climate, forests, agriculture, energy and finance. They have further agreed to reinforce the Green and Inclusive Growth Partnership and to develop a Bilateral Strategic Dialogue on Climate.

Enhancing collaboration on the road to COP30

The UK Secretary of State has stated that 2024 and 2025 will be pivotal years under Brazil’s leadership of the G20 and COP30 to drive global progress. Brazilian Ministers took note of the UK’s COP26 experience, plans for a global Clean Power Alliance and hosting of the International Energy Agency’s International Summit of the Future of Energy Security in London in 2025. In this context, Ministers have agreed to enhance collaboration on international climate on the road to COP30 and beyond.

Nationally Determined Contributions

Ministers have expressed deep concern that we are off track to keep the global average temperature rise below 1.5° C both in implementation and ambition. Ministers have declared their intention to lead by example, publishing economy-wide NDCs aligned with 1.5° C and the outcomes of the Global Stocktake of COP28 and representing our highest possible ambition, well ahead of the deadline of February 2025, and to call on others to do the same. The UK Minister has further agreed to come behind Brazil’s COP30 Presidency efforts to mobilise new NDCs and promote greater alignment between NDCs, Net Zero commitments, National Adaptation Plans and countries revised National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) by deploying diplomatic networks and relationships to encourage others to put forward their highest ambition towards 1.5° C.

Forests

UK and Brazilian Ministers are united in their commitment to delivering on the goal of halting and reversing forest loss by 2030, in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, as agreed through the first Global Stocktake of COP28. Minister Silva has expressed the importance of responding to the voices and needs of forest countries and called for the valuation and preservation of ecosystem services and increased funding for the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of forests. Secretary of State Miliband has agreed and committed to continue to deepen collaboration to tackle deforestation in Brazil, the Amazon and globally, based on national pathways in the context of sustainable development.  Ministers recognised the importance of working together through multilateral fora, including all three Rio Conventions, to support the protection and restoration of forests. Ministers welcomed the work carried out under the G20 Initiative on Bioeconomy to help advance an economic model based on the sustainable use of biological resources. They also underscored the need for a basket of instruments to finance forests, including results based payments and high-integrity carbon and nature markets, and the need to develop innovative financial instruments to support standing forests, such as Brazil’s proposal for the Tropical Forests Finance Facility. Ministers agreed to deepen cooperation to promote and support the interests of Indigenous People and Local Communities, the most important stewards of forests.

Energy transitions

Ministers have emphasised the importance of implementing all of the outcomes in the first Global Stocktake of COP28, including efforts to transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner and phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, and call on others to do the same. Both countries have underlined the urgency of de-risking, mobilising and diversifying additional investment in clean energy transition technologies and infrastructure for just and inclusive energy transitions and will work together to scale energy transition finance, building on the G20 Energy Transitions Working Group and Task Force for Global Mobilization against Climate Change.

Means of implementation and international climate finance

Ministers expressed concern that we are off track on delivery of means of implementation and agreed that the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) must be a true step-change to ensure we can deliver the ambition of the Paris Agreement. The authorities also stressed the importance of leveraging environmentally-sound technologies for creating local value and reducing inequalities within and among countries. They also underlined the need for intensifying capacity-building initiatives, with the aim of enhancing the capacity and ability of developing countries to take effective climate change action. Ministers further affirmed commitment to working together and with all Parties to deliver upon shared global commitments. Both Ministers welcomed the progress made on international taxation coordination at the G20 Finance Track as a means of mobilizing additional resources, private and public, domestic and international, to help address the financial costs of building climate resilience. Secretary Miliband has further relayed productive dialogues with Finance Ministry and intention to come behind Brazil’s Country Platform including through the existing UK-Brazil Industry Decarbonization and Hydrogen Hubs. Ministers highlighted the need to accelerate action on aligning finance flows with 1.5° C pathways and climate resilient development, building a successful example through outcomes in the G20, and beyond to COP29 and COP30.

COP26 to COP30 dialogues and action agenda

Ministers have agreed to intensify dialogues to share experiences towards COP30 and beyond across policy areas as well as on logistical arrangements. The UK Secretary of State has offered a Partnership on the Breakthrough Agenda to provide continuity from COP to COP. The Brazilian Ministers agreed to welcome technical-level dialogues on the action agenda at previous COPs and options for COP30 to take forward priorities and actions from previous COPs and Brazil’s Presidency of the G20.