The federal government published this Thursday (19) a decree with rules for the carbon market in the country. The measure requires the Ministries of the Environment and Economy and other ministries to create a climate change mitigation plan, in which greenhouse gas emission targets will be defined.
The decree signed by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) establishes that the Executive will create a system that will centralize data on the emission of gases that directly impact global warming. It will be up to this central to regulate the market and create rules, for example, so that carbon reduction or removal credits are traded.
The system will be digital and will be under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment. The measure also states that the markets impacted by the decree, such as the durable goods, final chemical, paper and civil construction industries, will have 180 days to submit suggestions to the government on the subject.
The decree provides for “mechanisms of integration with the regulated international market”. In addition to carbon, the standard also mentions methane. The norm, in other words, provides for the institution of rules for the market that works like most others: whoever has surplus sells to those who need it, preferably at a price that satisfies both sides.
In this case, what is sold is not a physical product. Carbon is a simplified way of calling the emission of gases that cause global warming.
As the most common of them is CO2 (carbon dioxide), the term carbon has become a synonym for these gases in climate discussions.
Each ton of carbon dioxide corresponds to a carbon credit, which can be bought or sold. In a simplified example, if a country needed to reduce its emission by 1,000 tons of CO2, but manages to cut 1,200 tons, it keeps 200 carbon credits, which it can sell to another nation that failed to meet its target.
The subject was widely discussed at COP26, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.
The publication of the decree had been anticipated by the Minister of the Environment, Joaquim Leite, at an event on Wednesday (18).
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