Rio, June 25, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The Brazilian government is waiting for the Kyoto Protocol and, consequently, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to take force so that CDM projects can effectively be implanted and the country can participate in the international carbon market. On Tuesday (24), the advisor on the Coordination of Global Changes, in the Ministry of Science and Technology, Newton Paciornik, declared, in Rio, that when Russia ratifies the Protocol, the index of 55% of carbon gas emissions, set in 1990, will be reached, so that the CDM can take effect.

Paciornik participated in the seminar on opportunites in the international carbon market, sponsored by the Brazilian Petroleum and Gas Institute (IBP) and ICF Consultants, from the United States. He expressed the "government's enormous interest" in the operationalization of the Mechanism, so that CDM projects in developing countries can be implemented in Brazil. Paciornik emphasized that, this way, these countries can make a real contribution to the global reduction of pollutent gases. This mechanism will permit developed countries to use carbon credits from projects implanted in developing countries to comply with part of the obligations they assumed in the Protocol to reduce emissions. (DAS)