After blocking the negotiations that sought to create a global carbon market at COP25 (in 2019, in Madrid), Brazil relaxed its positions for the current climate conference, which takes place in Glasgow until this Friday.
The country, at COP26, is confident in the conclusion of the regulation of article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which creates the rules for the sale of credits for the emission of greenhouse gases between countries and also between private sector projects.
“There is an ongoing proposal that Brazil is clearly supporting, a proposal that guarantees all the integrity of the system,” Environment Minister Joaquim Leite told the press this Thursday (11th), at the Brazilian pavilion at COP26.
The proposal that encouraged the Brazilians was made by Japan, according to members of the Brazilian delegation, and consists of an intermediate condition between what Brazil had been proposing in recent conferences and what developed countries defended for item 6.4 of the agreement, which deals with trade emissions between projects independent of national governments.
Brazil defended that credits traded by other actors should not be deducted from the country’s emissions account maintained by the federal government. The proposal was accused of undermining the environmental integrity of the climate agreement, providing an opening for double counting – in which case the same result of emission reduction would be accounted for both in the rendering of accounts by the buyer and the seller country.
The Japanese solution is to increase the rigor of trade between projects negotiated by the global private sector, in a transaction that would pass through the UN climate convention and also through the scrutiny of the countries involved.
The European Union also praised Brazil for its “constructive posture” in the carbon market negotiations.
“It’s not giving up, it’s clearly a constructive position by Brazil in this direction,” stated the minister regarding the flexibility of the positions defended by the country in the negotiations.
“The agreement also has an important Kyoto deal, in a responsible way, that guarantees the integrity of the carbon system,” Leite said.
Uploading credits from projects negotiated under the Kyoto Protocol to a new global carbon market model would be one of the conditions placed by Brazil to make other demands of the country more flexible, such as the corresponding adjustments to climate goals (which would start to discount the credits sold by the parents).
There are signs from developed countries about the creation of a transition window, lasting from one to two years and with a ceiling of US$ 200 million, so that Kyoto credits can be traded at the beginning of the new market.
The demand is important for developing countries that invested in the mechanism created in Kyoto, but it raises concerns about the negotiation of old credits, which do not add contributions to the current climate.
The forecast is that the new text will be published on the morning of Friday (12), when the advances can be verified.
“Unfortunately, some countries are still resistant to this proposal, supported by Brazil, and we have there maybe 24, 48 hours to get this consensus,” stated Leite.
Journalist Ana Carolina Amaral traveled at the invitation of Instituto Clima e Sociedade.
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