Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva confirmed Monday that he is set to attend the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December, according to dpa. Lula said in his weekly radio programme Breakfast with the President that he hopes for progress at the summit. He recalled that Brazil committed last week to reducing by up to 38.9 per cent its own current emissions of greenhouse gases by 2020. Although hopes of setting compulsory targets on emissions in Copenhagen fell in recent days, Lula said that he remains hopeful that industrialized countries "manage to make progress and, at the minimum, take on some basic principles to reduce greenhouse gases." Still, he called upon the United States and China - who favour adopting a political commitment in Copenhagen, rather than one that would be legally-binding - to take "more responsibility" in the fight against climate change. "Brazil took the initiative in setting targets to press those who spend all their time trying to teach Brazil lessons. If Brazil did its part, they will have to do theirs too. If it"s not today, it will be tomorrow, or next year. But they will have no way to avoid it: everyone will have to show figures," Lula said. He explained that the positions of China and the United States motivated him to travel to Copenhagen, rather than the opposite. "At this point, only leaders" presence can change something," he said. "There is no room for pessimism. We believe that, once leaders gather around one table, what seems impossible can happen," Lula stressed. Brazil hopes to attain half of its emissions cut by an 80 per cent reduction in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest within its borders. Between August 2008 and July this year, deforestation was reduced to the loss of about 7 billion square kilometres, the smallest amount in 21 years. Other measures to cut down emissions were to focus on the farming and cattle-raising sectors and on the expansion of hydroelectric energy plants. --SPA
