Climate Change Update 2015: Brazil Vows To Reduce Carbon Emissions By Nearly Half

The president of Brazil vowed to reduce the country's carbon emissions significantly in a speech to the United Nations Sunday. President Dilma Rousseff said the South American nation would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent by 2025 from 2005 levels.

Rousseff said Brazil planned to achieve its goal by revving up efforts to use renewable energy, including solar, wind and biomass. Authorities will also look to reforestation as a way to reduce emissions. The president already has pledged to restore some 12 million hectares (46,332 square miles) of forest, an area about the same size as Pennsylvania.

Surprising to many, Norway, a Scandinavian nation thousands of miles from Brazil, has been part of the country's reforestation effort. Norway is one of the largest donors to the effort as a country that earns much of its GDP in oil and gas production. Norwegian authorities pledged $1 billion to Brazil in 2008 for reforestation, and Brazil is set to receive the last $100 million of that money at a U.N. summit in December after reducing deforestation 75 percent.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the two countries initiatives on climate change were an “outstanding example” of international collaboration.

The Brazilian president has made climate change one of her top priorities throughout her term. “As countries that are as vast as continents, we have this very important greenhouse gas emissions target,” said Rousseff after a meeting with President Barack Obama in June. “We attach a great deal of importance to reducing [deforestation] ... and we also wish to turn the page and engage in a clear-cut reforestation-oriented policy,” she said.

Rousseff said the nation also hoped to reduce emissions by 43 percent by 2030.