Sao Paulo, Nov 14 (DPA) Brazil plans to lower its emissions of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) by nearly 40 percent by 2020, a government official said here.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Chief of Staff Dilma Rousseff emphasised late Friday that the ambitious goal was voluntary.

Brazil intends to emit around one billion fewer tonnes of CO2 by 2020 than it otherwise would have.

The South American nation also intends to reduce the rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest by 80 percent.

President Lula is in Paris Saturday meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.