Brazil is a vital player in the fight against climate change and towards biodiversity conservation, being the fifth largest country in the world, with a population of over 213 million people and forest area of 4.8 million square kilometres, and home to the largest rainforest on Earth.
ABEMA (Brazilian Association of State Environmental Entities) has been a partner of CDP’s States and Regions program in Latin America since 2020, encouraging Brazilian states to monitor environmental progress. ABEMA is a non-profit civil association governed by private law, with representatives of state environmental agencies from all 26 Brazilian States and the Federal District, working together to address global climate change.1 The association supports CDP to promote transparency of the climate actions and agenda of Brazilian subnational governments. This partnership is substantially increasing the number of disclosing Brazilian states.
As a result of the support of ABEMA to CDP, 21 of Brazil’s 27 sub-national entities disclosed environmental data to CDP in 2021, and 25 out of the 27 disclosed to CDP in 2022. This represents 201 million inhabitants, over 95% of Brazil’s total population. As part of the association, state environmental agencies have pledged to 17 commitments of the ABEMA charter, focusing on establishing state contributions to Brazil’s NDC and the Paris Agreement Goals, reporting climate and deforestation data to CDP, monitoring, and implementing environmental actions, and including these in policies, implementing management activities and climate education.
ABEMA implements and monitors the states’ commitments through three key phases:
- Phase 1: Knowledge Building
- Survey of actions to implement ABEMA’s Charter commitments
- Capacity building webinars on actions being taken
- How commitments can be implemented in practice and policy
- Phase 2: Knowledge application
- Support and guidance (Roadmap) for sub-national entities to elaborate their Action Plans to implement the ABEMA Charter
- Phase 3: Report and monitoring
- System to follow and spread the progress on the implementation of the ABEMA Charter
- Data reported by the states and the Federal District to CDP is analysed and made available on ABEMA’s website
Highlighting Brazilian States’ 2022 Disclosure Insights
The analysis from Brazilian sub-national entities reporting to CDP demonstrates that they are already working towards the advancement of the climate agenda, taking action in the land use sector and aiming at conserving and recovering forest area.
The most significant hazards faced in Brazil (according to 2022 CDP disclosure) include drought, water stress, and heavy precipitation. The top three adaptation actions to address these climate hazards in Brazil’s states include the implementation of laws and regulatory actions, government policies and programs, and adaptive management.
Through the partnership and collaboration between CDP and ABEMA for more transparency and accountability, the State of Rio Grande do Sul signed a cooperation agreement with CDP during COP27, to monitor how their municipalities work to achieve their established environmental goals and implement action to fight climate change. In addition, the State of Santa Catarina, a member of CDP’s Supply Chain program, has worked closely with CDP in a pilot project, where the state has invited close to 50 companies operating within it to disclose their environmental data through CDP. These two examples highlight the importance of collaboration across various actors to drive climate action where it is most needed.
Register now and view more responses for states and regions, cities, and companies reporting publicly through our responses search tool. You can explore climate change and sustainability data from more than 1,200 city, state and regional governments through our Open Data Portal.