The Ministry of Environment believes that this sector, which moved more than US $ 30 million, can be a business alternative for communities in conservation areas

Climate Change is shown as the most serious environmental problem for the world. This is why several countries, companies, scientists and people in general, have devised various methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Leer en español: Mercado Voluntario de Carbono: Una oportunidad para la conservación en Colombia

One of these alternatives is the carbon market. This refers to the negotiation where a person who has, for example, 100 hectares of native forests in Ecuador, sells a certified carbon bonus to a Japanese automotive company. In this way, we try to compensate that the company's carbon emissions are similar to the CO2 capture of trees in Ecuador.

Mauricio Mira Pontón, head of the green business office of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, explained to the Latin American Post, the emerging market in Colombia and the opportunities this represents for a

According to Mira Pontoon, there are 2 types of carbon bond markets. The regulated market, which came out of the Kyoto Protocol, which is a negotiation between countries and is payment on results. On the other hand, and in parallel, a private market emerged, the voluntary market. That is the one that is moving today.

"More and more climate bags are growing, specialized bags to negotiate international carbon credits.The issue of global warming is an issue that concerns us all and certificates or voluntary bonds, are governed by standards that determine the type of carbon bonus that is going to be negotiated "explained the official.

In recent years, Colombia has been supporting or structuring several projects to sell these bonds that are negotiated with international buyers who demanded these bonds to reduce their carbon footprint and comply with some fiscal obligations in their countries. Many of these bonds were purchased for European countries that had to offset their carbon footprint, buying carbon credits in Colombia.

Mira Pontón affirmed that in Colombia it had been working since 2008 or 2009 when the Mercantile Exchange was in charge of negotiating the bonds. But there was no so-called marketability, there were not many carbon bond negotiations. At the level of Colombian companies, they were minimal, because they did not have a motivator to buy these bonds. It did not exist, apart from environmental ethics or corporate social responsibility, it was not interesting from the economic point of view.

The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development said that "as a result of the carbon tax, the market began to react and the Ministry issued the decree 926 of compensation, where companies that do not want the causation of the carbon tax, are obliged to buy carbon credits, which in practice would generate substantial savings by not paying that tax. "

"These bonds are purchased from various projects that come from different parts of Colombia, there are community projects, there are projects developed by cooperation agencies, there are private projects that have been certified under various standards. , where there is a company, for example airlines, interested in offsetting their carbon footprint, "assured the head of the green business office of the ministry.

The data suggest that due to the non-causation of the tax, negotiations of over 23 million dollars are registered, which is huge for a market that has been going out so far. According to Mira Pontón, "this market still has gaps that need to be further refined, but we hope that the market will be perfected in the coming months". 

Latin American Post | Santiago Gómez Hernández
Translated from "Mercado Voluntario de Carbono: Una oportunidad para la conservación en Colombia"