In September 2024, the government of the Amazonian state of Pará signed a $180 million contract to sell 12 million carbon credits to international buyers, including companies such as Amazon, Bayer, H&M Group and the Walmart Foundation. The deal, which involves credits generated through Pará’s jurisdictional REDD+ program, made headlines as the world’s largest carbon credit sale to date. Nine months later, the contract, brokered by the nonprofit Emergent on behalf of corporate buyers, is being legally challenged in the Brazilian Federal Court and could be canceled altogether. On June 3, Brazil’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office filed a lawsuit seeking to nullify the agreement and demanding 200 million reais ($36 million) in moral damages for local communities. The lawsuit came after prosecutors raised a series of issues regarding the program and an attempted conciliation between the parties, to no avail. A federal judge has since shut down the request for an injunction, but the case is ongoing. The lawsuit alleges that the Pará government engaged in the advance sale of carbon credits — a violation of Brazil’s new legislation for the carbon market. The law enacted in 2024 established a set of rules to prevent the double-counting of credits when multiple projects are located in the same area. Felipe de Moura Palha e Silva, head of the Public Prosecutors’ Office in Pará, told Mongabay there is no question the contract constitutes a presale. The document lays out specific sale terms, including the volume of emissions reductions, a fixed price and a…This article was originally published on Mongabay
From Conservation news via this RSS feed