Brazil Sees Promise, But Need For New Funding Source For REDD

Gloria Gonzalez

Cosmetics giant Natura and a few other forward-thinking companies in Brazil have taken the leap into the voluntary carbon market to offset their greenhouse gas emissions, but the number and size of transactions is still small. There is plenty of room for more voluntary transactions in Brazil, experts say, particularly if a finance mechanism currently being developed can sustain REDD initiatives until a new international climate agreement takes hold in 2020.


8 April 2014 | Brazilian company Natura caused quite a stir in the global carbon markets in 2013 when it engaged in a first-of-its-kind deal to purchase 120,000 tons of carbon offsets from a project developed by the Paiter-Suruí­ indigenous community in the Amazon under the Verified Carbon Standard’s Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) methodology.

In 2007, the cosmetics giant launched its corporate carbon neutral program, which now supports 15 carbon offset projects in Brazil and one in Colombia, Mariama Vendramini told attendees of the Navigating the American Carbon World conference in San Francisco. Vendramini is the commercial and financial director for Biofilica, which provides environmental services and develops REDD offsets for Brazilian companies. She estimated the total number of offsets voluntarily purchased by the company at 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e).

It turns out that Natura is not alone in terms of Brazilian companies looking to voluntarily offset their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In October 2013, Ticket Car launched a pilot program to allow its clients to manage and offset their vehicle emissions at about 1,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) per year. Brazilian banking giant Santander also launched a pilot project to allow its clients who purchased cars to offset their emissions, with the pilot project leading to demand of about 70, 000 tCO2e in six months.

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Gloria Gonzalez is a Senior Associate in Ecosystem Marketplace’s Carbon Program. She can be reached at [email protected].

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About this Series

This is the seventh in an ongoing series of articles developed in support of this year’s two Katoomba Meetings, both of which are taking place in Latin America. The first meeting took place on March 19 and 20 in Brazil, under the banner “Scaling Up Sustainable Commodity Supply Chains”.

The second meeting will take place in Lima, Peru, over four days – beginning on Earth Day, April 22, through the 25th – and its working motto is “Climate, Forests, Water, and People: A Vision for Alignment in Tropical America”.

Part One: Latin American Katoomba Meetings Aim To Turbocharge Climate Talks, provides an overview of the two Katoomba Meetings.

Part Two: Amazon States In Brazil Push For Benefit-Sharing On National REDD+ Strategy, takes a look at how Brazil’s Amazon states are gearing up for REDD.

Part Three: Your Donut Is Killing Our Forests, Here’s How To Make It Stop, examines the role of consumers in driving change in the palm oil sector – a lesson that may be applied to soy across the Amazon.

Part Four: How To Unlock Agricultural Finance To Save Forests And Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions On Farms, explores financing possibilities for sustainable forest-conserving production.

Part Five Commodity Roundtables: Katoomba 19 Sheds Light On Role Of Consumer examines the somewhat limited success of roundtables on growing sustainable crop production, factoring in the consumer’s role in mobilizing change.

Part Six REDD Bonds For Brazil-And The World examines ways of borrowing against pay-for-performance mechanisms to promote climate-safe agriculture in the here and now.

Part Seven Brazil Sees Promise, But Need For New Funding Source For REDD examines efforts to cultivate domestic demand for environmental finance.

Part Eight Biodiversity Boom Bolsters Peruvian Forests (And REDD) examines the interplay between healthy forests, biodiversity, and carbon finance.

Part Nine Peruvian Ecosystem Services Law In Limbo On Eve Of Katoomba 20 In Lima examines a comprehensive piece of legislation awaiting debate before the Peruvian National Congress.

Part Ten Katoomba XX To Be Live-Streamed On Ecosystem Marketplace offers a late-stage guide to the Katoomba Meeting in Peru and how to access it.

Part Eleven Uniting People And Ecosystem Resilience For Food Security in Latin America examines a survey of more than 100 Latin American landscapes management initiatives.