mercado de créditos de carbono - Revista O Papel

of Geography and Statistics (IBGE)
and member of the WWF-Brazil Advisory
Council, “if global warming is not
treated by the financial market, some
other mechanism will have to be created
to do the job”.
In Brazil, which country is a seller
of carbon credits, negotiations in the
area are operated by the Brazilian
Emissions Reduction Market (MBRE),
a joint initiative between the Futures &
Commodities Exchange (BM&F) and
the Ministry of Development, Industry
and Commerce (MDIC). The economic
function of MBRE, which has been operating
since 2005, is to attract foreign
direct investments that contribute to
economic development and foster clean
technology projects.
Yellow-green carbon
According to World Bank data,
Brazil’s participation in the carbon
market is roughly 10%, which amounts
to more than US$ 1.3 billion. However,
according to professor Peter H. May,
from the Postgraduate Program of Social
Sciences in Development, Agriculture
and Society at the Federal Rural
University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ),
Brazil’s potential for capturing carbon
credit funds is limited.
“Brazil already possesses an energy
base where the presence of renewable
sources is well above the average of
developing nations – particularly due
to the predominance of water sources in
more than 90% of electricity supplied
and the high presence of biomass in its
energy grid”, he pointed out.
Additionally, the potential for
converting into less emitting sources
would also be limited compared to
that of other developing countries
with a small presence of renewable
sources in their energy grids, like
China. As such, May believes that the
supply of carbon projects for reducing
global emission of greenhouse gases
would not be satisfied by a lower
cost in Brazil in comparison with
other countries. On the other hand, the
carbon credits generated by Brazilian
forests would allow for a series of CDM
projects, creating opportunities not only
to combat global warming, but also
ones that encourage reforestation. But
all this potential is still wasted because,
according to Kyoto Protocol guidelines,
forest carbon credits are not eligible for
offsetting emissions.
To overcome this barrier, Brazil’s
pulp and paper sector proposes perfecting
CDMs based on scientific proof
that forests, whether planted or native,
are important absorption and inventory
elements of the CO 2
in the atmosphere
– which position was defended
by the Brazilian Climate Alliance in
December at the United Nations Climate
Change Conference (COP 15), in
Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Alliance, composed of the 14
most important Brazilian entities in the
agribusiness, planted forest and bioen-
O PAPEL - Julho 2010
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