Lula signs a law that allows the sale of carbon credits – 05/25/2023 – Environment

President Lula (PT) sanctioned this Thursday (25) a law that allows the sale of carbon credits in public forests and granted conservation units, a measure that divided environmentalists.

Lula just vetoed a device that defined what would be legal reserves. In the government’s understanding, the alteration of this definition, as proposed in the text, would represent the “reduction of the current standards of environmental protection”.

The new law is the result of a provisional measure that had been forwarded in December by former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

Carbon credits are certificates that prove that an entity —company or even a country— has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions. These entities can sell these surplus credits when they promote reductions greater than the determined.

The proposal was criticized by organizations linked to the environment when it was approved by the Chamber. More than 50 entities, including non-governmental organizations and popular movements, were against it.

“[A lei] will allow the company that obtains the concession, for example for 40 years for the exploration of 40 thousand hectares in forest management, to also obtain the possibility of measuring and commercializing carbon credits over that area”, says the group, in a note.

According to the argument, the release for commercialization of carbon credits from conservation units and public forests means that those who pollute can offset their carbon emissions, buying credit, at the expense of these preserved areas in Brazil.

“Basically, we are talking about the use of public forests and conservation units in the list of licenses to pollute, corroborating the delay in the urgent and necessary cut in greenhouse gas emissions to face the climate crisis”, completes the note.

On the other hand, some entities pointed out that the possibility of trading carbon credits can make forest concessions more attractive, thus contributing to the preservation of the environment.

Lula just vetoed the device that changed the definition of legal reserve. The text approved by the National Congress defined these reserves as areas registered in registration with the objective of maintaining a stock of wood, designated as technical plans for conduction and management or other similar designations that would be prior to those defined by the legislation that dealt with the subject, from 1989.

The government, listening to the Ministry of the Environment, argued that this would broaden the scope of legal reserves to include cases that should not fall under this concept.

“The legislative proposal goes against the public interest due to the potential expansion with the inclusion of forests planted with exotic species and distorting the objective of protecting native vegetation through the legal reserve. The alteration would represent a reduction in the current standards of environmental protection in the areas of legal reserve, with unequivocal violation of the constitutional principle of prohibition of environmental retrogression.”

The federal government has been criticized by environmental organizations, with the approval of the provisional measure that restructured the federal government. The changes promoted by deputies and senators, without government resistance, strengthen the centrão and remove power from Minister Marina Silva (Rede).