Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is to make his final decision Tuesday regarding the proposal for reducing national greenhouse gas emissions, which Brazil will take to the Copenhagen summit in December.

The Brazilian government discussed three options in mid-October, separately submitted by the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change, but ended up with no agreement.

Lula then asked to regroup these options, and to clearly define the Brazilian position on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Environment suggested freezing the emissions at the 2005 level, which was about 2.2 billion tons, while assuring GDP (gross domestic product) would grow at 4 percent a year.

Under the ministry's proposal, roughly half of the carbon dioxide emissions cut would come from reducing deforestation.

The government announced an 80 percent reduction in the Amazon deforestation rate by 2020, based on the annual average of 19,500 sq km between 1996 and 2005, which would reduce 4.8 billion tons of emissions.

Dilma Rousseff, Lula's chief of staff, requested the Environment Minister Carlos Minc to present two options with a growth of 5 and 6 percent.

Environmental organizations and even businessmen demanded the government take a more ambitious proposal to Copenhagen in order to urge rich countries to make greater commitments.

Delegates from 192 member countries of the United Nations are to meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, to find a sequel to the Kyoto Protocol, the UN anti-climate agreement which expires in 2012.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2009)