We cannot fall into the carbon tax trap, says Campos Neto

At an event on Brazilian agribusiness in Portugal, the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, defended the strengthening of the carbon credit market, but criticized the creation of taxes on the element.

“We have heard a lot about carbon taxes. Thinking that governments allocate resources better than the market is a mistake. We know this very well in Brazil. We cannot fall into this carbon tax trap here and there, because what what will make the market work is the carbon credit market,” he said.

Campos Neto also defended that there is a better distribution of responsibility for emissions between countries.

“Today, the carbon load is much greater on those who produce than on those who consume. If this is not resolved in a way that producing countries and consuming countries come into harmony, it will happen, and this is something we are already seeing, that some input producers will say that, with this carbon credit that is so expensive, it’s no longer worth producing, because the margin isn’t worth it,” he says.

Also in his speech, Roberto Campos Neto also drew attention to the global increase in energy demand and price.

“There is a huge increase in demand for energy, but at the same time we want to be greener, more sustainable.

“Many countries stopped investing in forms of energy that are more short-term to think about cleaner things. So we see that the volume of investment in dirty energy has dropped a lot at a time when the demand for energy has risen a lot”, it says.

Approached by journalists at the event, Campos Neto stated that he would not speak to the press.

Shortly before this, Justice Rosa Weber, from the Federal Supreme Court, sent to the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) a request for an investigation against the current president of the Central Bank and the owner of BTG Pactual, André Esteves.

The procedure seeks to assess whether there are sufficient elements for an inquiry into the misuse of privileged information.