Director of Sustainability aliveJoanes Rivas called on the private sector at the panel “Telecommunications as a pillar of resilience: the impact of communication networks on climate emergency management”, held this Thursday 13th at the Brazil Pavilion in the COP30 Green Zone.
“The alive We have taken many steps to reduce the effects of climate change. But I wanted to leave a message that goes beyond our field. We are in COP week, with countries discussing targets and reviews. This is a COP of truth, a COP of implementation, and I wanted to call on the private sector to reassess its goals, its 2040, 2050 goals. Is this the deadline the Earth is looking for? Isn’t it time to reevaluate and set more ambitious goals? asked Joannes.
He emphasized that tackling climate change needs to go beyond the companies themselves and extend to the entire value chain. “I would like to call on companies, not just our industry, to look at their value chains, because the biggest challenge lies in the biggest emissions. Every sector has this as a challenge: how do you facilitate it, how do you integrate this chain,” he said.
“I think this is a time to act, to reevaluate goals, and to have the private sector increasingly create change. This is a responsibility that has to be shared and accelerated. We can’t have goals that look to 2050, 2040. These goals are for now. We need to mobilize all sectors.”
The panel is alivewas one of 12 selected from 1,270 proposals submitted to the Department of Environment and Climate Change. Scientist Carlos Noble, co-chair of the Amazon Scientific Panel, also attended the discussion. Marjorie Kaufman, Secretary of Environment and Infrastructure of the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Thomaz Toledo, CEO of Cetesb. Semaden’s acting director, Pedro Ivo Camarinha. and Laura Fernández Cabas, Director of Sustainable Finance at Telefonica. Moderation was led by Melina Amoni, Climate Risk and Adaptation Manager at WayCarbon.
Telecommunications as a tool to respond to the climate emergency
Guests emphasized that enhanced communications are essential to save lives, ensure community resilience and improve warning systems as the climate changes. supervision of alive He emphasized that this connectivity plays a direct role in the safety of the population in extreme situations. “We must further strengthen our operational readiness to move faster and ensure our systems continue to connect people.”
Carlos Nobre stressed that Brazil is experiencing the “biggest climate emergency in history” and defended accelerating mitigation measures. “It is essential that the entire economic system follows this path. We must not accelerate the cuts too much,” he said.
He also recalled that Semaden (National Natural Disaster Monitoring and Warning Center) was created in 2011 in response to the disaster in Rio de Janeiro’s mountains that killed more than 900 people. “At that time, several countries had already introduced mobile phone alert systems. I tried to convince the Civil Defense Agency that when Semaden starts operating, it is necessary to alert all Brazilians. Semaden has already issued alerts several days in advance, but there are still cases in which these alerts are ignored,” he said.
Semaden is an agency associated with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) responsible for monitoring, warning and preventing natural disasters such as floods, floods and landslides in Brazil. Pedro Ivo Camarinha, Deputy Director of the Monitoring Center, stressed the importance of integrating efforts between government agencies and adapting communications to the different realities of the country. He said Cemaden integrates information with intelligent systems and transforms complex data into clear warnings for the public.
“Given the various asymmetries in Brazil, communication is a fundamental pillar to ensure that the message is delivered in an appropriate, transparent and understandable manner,” he explained.
Laura Fernández Cabas, Director of Sustainable Finance at Telefonica, also defended the warning system, calling attention to the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. “Climate change is so extreme that we need to use science and data to predict and mitigate risks,” he said. He advocated for governments and businesses to invest in technological tools that facilitate the operation of warning and rapid response systems.
Regarding the role of environmental monitoring to prepare for emergencies, Tomas Toledo, CEO of Companjia Ambiental do Estado de São Paulo (Setesub), said that with climate change, the body is increasingly required to be faster and more agile. He explained that Cetesb is developing a platform based on satellite imagery to monitor hazardous areas and facilitate inspection of these areas. “Cetesb has an extensive data reception network and we have established a department focused on this, precisely to convert information into action and support decision-making when extreme events occur,” he explained.
During the panel mediation, Melina Amoni, Climate Risk and Adaptation Manager at WayCarbon, like other experts, emphasized the importance of training those who receive alerts to understand the relevance of these messages and how to act on them.
Vivo’s commitment to sustainability
While the panel was still in session, João Rivas said: alive is committed to promoting sustainability in its actions. She recalled that the company is part of the Telefônica group and operates in 18 countries with optical fiber installed in more than 83 million homes and thousands of employees. “The sustainability pillars are something we monitor and drive internally,” he said. She emphasized that: alive has played a leading role in this effort since it began setting emissions reduction targets in 2015, but those targets have been brought forward for many years.
“Since 2019, we have offset 100% of our unavoidable emissions, and the science says we will reach a historic maximum in 2023. The science shows that the private sector needs to reduce emissions by up to 90%. “We have reached this milestone. We have maintained these reductions from December 2023 and are committed to maintaining these reductions not only in our operations but in our value chain,” he explained.
According to the company’s director of sustainability, this commitment also extends to its suppliers. “Today, every supplier in the world alive is included in this trip. When we started the project, only 30% were working on climate change. “Currently, 87% are already committed to climate action and our goal is for everyone to reduce emissions by 90% by 2035,” he said.
Jones also recalled: living future meetingpromoted this year in São Paulo, the company is the first in this sector in Latin America to commit to Amazon. What is a project? A living future forestthe company is working on the protection and restoration of an area of 800 hectares. “This is a conservation and restoration initiative. It will protect one of the largest biomes we have, a forest, for 30 years,” he added.
*The reporter traveled at the invitation of Mr. Mothiba, founder of the Transport Decarbonization Coalition.
About The Author
