By Marcela Ayres
BRASILIA, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Brazil plans to use a high-level visit to China next week to assess whether Beijing could become a buyer of Brazilian carbon credits and advance talks toward a bilateral carbon market accord that officials hope to announce by the COP31 global climate summit this November in Turkey, Brazil’s carbon market secretary Cristina Reis told Reuters.
The discussions between top climate and carbon-market officials from the two countries will take place alongside meetings in Wuhan from September 14 to 18, where a Brazil-China-EU coalition of carbon market jurisdictions covering roughly 42% of global emissions is set to approve a work plan aimed at gradually aligning and integrating trading systems.
According to Reis, the trip to China will also test whether the Asian country could become a buyer of internationally transferred mitigation outcomes, or ITMOs, a type of carbon credit that counts toward countries’ official emission tallies under the Paris Agreement.
“If that happens, Brazil needs to be the first to offer high-integrity credits,” Reis said.
No other country has an official agreement with China to trade ITMOs, which is now expanding and reforming its emissions trading system, the largest in the world.
OFFICIALS ASSESS ACCELERATING INTERNATIONAL TRADES
For now, Brazil’s carbon credits are traded only in voluntary markets, where companies can buy credits to meet self-imposed emissions reduction goals.
But under legislation approved in 2024, Brazil is preparing to implement its own regulated carbon market, in which companies will buy credits to meet official decarbonization targets, and allow the country to trade internationally through ITMOs.
Reis said that the plan was to establish a system to verify credits for international trades between 2031 and 2035. But the government is now considering industry requests to accelerate that timeline.
“It is on the table,” she said. “Those evaluating the submissions consider that possibility viable.”
The issue is closely watched by Brazil’s carbon credit producers eager to tap demand from international compliance markets.
COALITION MOVES FROM VISION TO IMPLEMENTATION
Alongside bilateral talks, officials from Brazil, China and the European Union are set to approve a work plan for the carbon-market coalition launched earlier this year to increase compatibility among markets.
The coalition already has 11 members and is seeking additional participation from developing countries, according to Brazilian officials.
Members believe mutual recognition of carbon assets could be achievable within a decade, said Ana Paula Cavalcante, Brazil’s deputy secretary for carbon-market regulation and methodologies.
“Both the coalition and the closer relationship with China can help scale up carbon markets and unlock investment flows for Brazil as it seeks to reindustrialize around new technologies,” she added.
(Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by Manuela Andreoni and Andrea Ricci)
