SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved a bill on Tuesday that sets rules for a carbon market in the country, with the text now pending only approval from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to become a law.
The bill, which had already received the green light from the Senate, proposes two types of carbon credits markets: a regulated one, with a cap of emissions for specific sectors of the economy, and a so-called volunteer market.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Companies typically buy such credits to offset a portion of their greenhouse gas emissions, essentially paying for projects that cut climate pollution.
Brazil hosts part of the Amazon rainforest, whose protection scientists say is vital to curbing climate change because of the vast quantity of carbon dioxide its trees absorb.
ADDITIONAL CONTEXT
Brazil’s approval comes a week after countries at the United Nations COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan agreed to rules that could allow for a U.N.-backed global carbon market to be launched as soon as next year.
(Reporting by Andre Romani in Sao Paulo and Maria Carolina Marcello in Brasilia; Editing by Michael Perry)
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