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(Adds criticism of changed baseline gases inventory, paras 18-19)
By Anthony Boadle
BRASILIA, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Brazil will step up its Paris Accord targets at COP26 as it tries to recover credibility for its environmental policies and its stewardship of the Amazon rainforest, the country's top diplomat for climate talks said in an interview.
"I ask everyone for the benefit of the doubt and to look toward the future and not the past," Paulino de Carvalho Neto, the Foreign Ministry's secretary for multilateral political affairs, told Reuters before heading to the U.N. climate change conference starting in Glasgow on Sunday.
Brazil will formally lodge with the Paris Accord secretariat its commitment to bring forward to 2050 from 2060 its target for carbon neutrality, or net zero gas emissions, he said.
Environment Minister Joaquim Leite, who will head Brazil's delegation, is expected to raise to 45% from 43% the country's target for reducing emissions by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.
Vice President Hamilton Mourao said on Monday Brazil aims to end illegal deforestation https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/brazil-bring-forward-goal-end-illegal-deforestation-vp-says-2021-10-25 in the Amazon two or three years before the 2030 target promised by President Jair Bolsonaro at an Earth Day summit hosted in April by U.S. President Joe Biden.
"There has been a change of tack since April, not just in our targets but our actions. We have effectively begun to combat deforestation," Carvalho Neto said in an interview.
He said the government has increased its budget for fighting deforestation, which will help meet climate targets because destruction of the world's largest tropical forest is a major driver of Brazil's carbon dioxide emissions.
"If we can seriously combat deforestation, we will easily meet our Paris Accord targets, both the long-term 2050 climate neutrality goal and our (nationally determined contributions)," the diplomat said, referring to Brazil's individual goals for reducing emissions.
Bolsonaro, a climate change skeptic backed by powerful farming interests, has faced criticism from environmental activists and some world leaders for the rise in deforestation during his presidency. He continues to push for more mining and commercial agriculture in the Amazon, including on protected indigenous lands.
While forest fires in the Amazon have dropped significantly this year, there is far more deforestation than before Bolsonaro took office and weakened environmental enforcement https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment-ibama-exclusive-idUSKCN1VI14I.