The Federal Audit Court (TCU) launches, next Thursday (10), a tool for monitoring the performance of countries in controlling climate change. The objective of ClimateScanner is to map government investments related to the environment and climate, counting on the verification of the institution of superior control of each country, which, in the case of Brazil, is the TCU itself.
The project was presented to the press today (7) by the president of the court, Minister Bruno Dantas, on the first day of the International Congress of Higher Control Institutions (Incosai). The event brings together, in Rio de Janeiro, representatives from 148 countries and marks the beginning of the TCU’s presidency at the International Organization of Higher Control Institutions (Intosai). Also present was Intosai’s executive secretary, Margit Kraker, representing Austria’s Institution of Higher Control.
Dantas said that the monitoring framework will be important as a reliable and independent source of information on the commitments made at climate conferences, as the audit courts must be institutions with the autonomy to audit public data collected by governments.
“It is a global electronic panel powered by the higher control institutions, and not by governments, after verifying the veracity of the accuracy of all this information. It is evident, in this debate, that countries have an interest in showing beautiful pictures of what they are doing. . And the responsibility that our institutions have is precisely to verify that this information is true.”
The minister said that he already has the support of all Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States, and hopes to reach 70 countries by the time the platform is launched. The accession of control institutions from other countries with an important participation in greenhouse gas emissions, such as Russia and China, is under negotiation, but Dantas believes that control bodies from all over the world will join.
The tool will need to have a unique language and a list of indicators that will need to be produced and checked in each country, which should be defined over the next year. From this, the work will also need to take into account the capacity of each country to generate and verify information on the environment with the necessary rigor to be included in the general picture in a uniform way.
“It is necessary to establish a calendar, first of all, that is feasible for all nations, because what will be most important in this tool is exactly that the same information is available for all countries.”
Bruno Dantas evaluated that the alternation of power defined by the result of the presidential elections is a time to revisit audits such as those produced by the TCU, verify where it is possible to improve and understand which environmental inspection bodies need to be strengthened.
“We have all followed Brazil’s last years and, in a way, we regret that there has been a certain effort to deconstruct some of the commitments that Brazil has historically assumed with the international community,” he said, who stated that the TCU continued to carry out its work and that these international commitments are of great importance to the country. “I see Brazil’s reinsertion in important forums for debates on environmental issues very optimistically. I believe that the choice we made in the last three years, in a way, excluded us from this debate.”
Dantas stated that Brazil’s presidency at Intosai will be marked by a focus on social problems that are deeply rooted in Latin America and Africa, such as the fight against social inequalities, hunger, the environmental agenda and the agenda of independence from control institutions.
“Our idea is to bring Intosai even closer to important multilateral organizations, so that the voice of control institutions is strengthened from our international organization.”
