Dr. Carlos Nobre is a Nobel Laureate and co-author of the IPCC AR4 Report that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He’s also one of Brazil's top climate scientists. Dr. Nobre is a member of the Brazil Academy of Science and a founding member of the World Resources Institute Brazil. He is known for his work on the risk of the savannaization of the Amazon rainforest due to deforestation and climate change, and most recently he's promoted a series of solutions that he refers to as Amazonia 4.0.
Today's episode was meant to focus on the Brazilian context of emissions, energy and climate change, and we do indeed cover these topics. But first, Dr. Nobre takes some time to set important context about the progress, or relative lack thereof, that the world has made on decarbonization since his Nobel Prize-winning contributions. And he sounds alarm bells, that global insecurity and war in Ukraine and Israel, create risk of escalating fossil fuel exploration and production in the name of national sovereignty.
From there, we spend time on the Brazilian context, which as Dr. Nobre points out, is unique among industrialized nations, in that land use rather than energy production is the bulk of Brazil's emissions. He shares his roadmap for how deforestation can be halted and some of the challenges in doing so, which he ties back to organized crime and drug trafficking. Lastly, we discuss his vision for Amazonia 4.0 in which the country leans in via policy and infrastructure development to support the production and export of many of its natural resources rather than exploiting its land for cattle production.
In this episode, we cover:
- Lack of progress since the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 and the global challenge for humanity
- Global instability as a result of recent wars
- The concerning speed of the transition
- Emissions breakdown in Brazil and deforestation reductions in 2023
- Potential for emissions reductions with regenerative agriculture as the 2nd largest exporter of food
- Deforestation in the Amazon and main drivers, including cattle ranches, gold mining, and organized crime
- Dr. Nobre's Amazon 4.0 proposal
Episode recorded on Oct 30, 2023 (Published on Dec 11, 2023)
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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