Extra Edition! Highlights from the Brazilian Climate and Carbon Conference 2025.
- Art Dam
- Jul 26
- 8 min read
Updated: Aug 13
For your reading pleasure as we prepare the edition for early next week.
It was two intense days at the Latin American Memorial in São Paulo, Brazil, with very practical, comprehensive, and cutting-edge content. In addition to the evident increase in participants from other countries and global players, it seems that not only the private sector, but also the public sector, is preparing to occupy the COP30 space with several announcements and new developments.
Contents
1) Deforestation Reduction and Climate Action
Highlight for Cristiano Cunha who presented the Programa Brasil M.A.I.S. (Meio Ambiente Integrado e Seguro. i.e Integrated and Safe Environment).
This is a strategic operational initiative for remote sensing of Brazilian territory, run by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. It provides daily high-resolution satellite imagery of the entire country, as well as automatic alerts about environmental crimes such as deforestation, illegal mining, fires, and the cultivation of illicit crops. See, for example, deforestation detector.
The platform is already used by more than 560 public institutions and has approximately 110,000 users across Brazil. It provides free access to geospatial data, facilitating monitoring, investigation, and environmental planning, as well as fostering inter-institutional cooperation.
The plataforma SCCON is the technological basis that enables the functioning of Programa Brasil M.A.I.S.
2) Territorial Climate Governance: Guarantees of Rights and Environmental Safeguards
The testimony of Valber Tembé, President of Federação Zane Zeno’og haw (Tembé Tenetehar People), People who already work with private REDD+, with the first discussions taking place in 2004 and resuming in 2018. With the support of Wildlife Works, they formalized a protocol so that all Tembé Tenetehar villages are consulted and assisted on matters related to, for example:
REDD+ Avoided Deforestation Carbon Credit Projects
Reforestation and restoration projects for degraded areas
Research institutions
NGOs
Journalists and media producers
The Tembé Tenetehar People occupy the 279,897.70 hectares of the Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Land, covering the municipalities of Paragominas, Nova Esperança do Piriá and Santa Luzia do Pará. The territory is home to 38 villages — 19 to the north and 19 to the south — with around 614 indigenous families.
Wildlife Works is an international organization founded in 1997 and based in California, which develops forest conservation and REDD+ carbon credit projects in countries such as Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia and Indonesia, seeking both forest protection and the benefit of local communities.
Read more about this in this June 27, 2025, article from Cenarium Magazine. Below is also the protocol itself, a document with 54 impressive pages.
3) How can Agriculture Lead Solutions to Climate Challenges?
Eduardo Bastos, director of the Agribusiness Studies Institute (IEAG) at ABAG, highlighted the strategic role of soil carbon, the significant differences between soils in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and Brazil's potential to lead food production combined with the generation of carbon credits. He highlighted the creation of CCarbon (Centro de Estudos de Carbono em Agricultura Tropical i.e Center for Carbon Studies in Tropical Agriculture) in 2024, the largest research center in the Southern Hemisphere, with international support and Nobel laureates, and affiliated with ESALQ/USP. He mentioned a multi-million dollar project to establish baselines in all Brazilian biomes and stated that well-done agribusiness can contribute significantly to carbon capture, estimated at 13 billion tons in the Americas. "Well-done agribusiness is the solution," he said.
Tiago Agne, SLC Agrícola's corporate sustainability manager, he highlighted that Brazil already adopts sustainable agricultural practices, but lacks visibility. He advocated for a tropical Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) system and producers' access to Payment for Environmental Services (PES), with a focus on carbon recovery.
Richard Smith, CEO of the PCI MT Institute, he presented the PCI—"Produce, Conserve, Include"—as a sustainable model that values rural producers. With impressive results in Mato Grosso, he argues that the initiative can lead Brazil to carbon neutrality by 2035 and gain prominence at COP30.
4) Biomass Monitoring from Space – A Revolutionary Advance to Expand Carbon-Based Forest Finance?
Carlos Nobre, A full professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP, he warned of the savannization of the Amazon if deforestation exceeds 20–25% and global warming reaches 2°C, pushing the region close to the point of no return. He emphasized that more intense droughts could accelerate deforestation and identified two new risks: the emergence of viruses and pandemics, and the loss of "flying rivers," which recycle and transport moisture from the forest. He concluded, "We must save the Amazon."
Luiz Aragão, INPE researcher, highlighted that emissions from forest degradation vary significantly depending on the density of the different wood species, and are also impacted by the introduction of non-native species in each biome, which alters the original pattern and can intensify the effects of degradation.
Florian Reber, Chloris Geospatial presented several geospatial images and comparative analyses, focusing on Brazil. The presentation addressed biomass losses, highlighting their relevance for environmental monitoring and for accurately accounting for carbon emissions associated with forest degradation. We've included some slides in the mosaic below.
5) Governance of the regulated carbon market based on federative and sectoral dialogue
A beautiful public-private panel.
Cristina Reis, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, emphasized that the implementation of the SBCE will follow the timeline established by law, with a full report to be released soon. As an initial solution, a provisional management body will be created within the Ministry of Finance—a secretariat—as it is more agile and less costly than a regulatory agency, whose creation would require competitive examinations and legislative approval. In the long term, the government believes that a regulatory agency will be the ideal model for ensuring autonomy and technical governance.
Plínio Ribeiro, Advisor at Ambipar, praised the SBCE law but warned of the risks of rushing implementation and competing with the voluntary market. He advocated for an independent regulatory agency to ensure integrity and prevent lobbying. He emphasized that not every project becomes a carbon credit, and that demand is the most critical factor—if the cap is high or there is an excess of permits, the price could collapse. He also highlighted the role of REDD+ and the importance of technology in ensuring integrity, and praised the Federal Police's presentation on the Brasil M.A.I.S. program as an example of effective monitoring.
Aloísio Melo, National Secretary for Climate Change (MMA), explained that the MMA will have new responsibilities within the SBCE, including the reorganization of CONAREDD+ and interministerial coordination on topics such as ITMOs (international transfer of mitigation results) and Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. For COP30, Brazil will bring proposals on the three pillars of Article 6: 6.2 (ITMOs), 6.4 (market mechanism), and 6.8 (non-market cooperation). He also mentioned Article 56, which addresses the role of insurers, and the need for more regulation by SUSEP.
Something more about the content
The above is the content we've selected for our readers, although we witnessed other interesting panels, several of which were taking place simultaneously. To conclude this section of content, two more references.
About groups that met parallel to the event, see for example this LinkedIn post about Women in carbon.
Thibault Sorret, CEO Equitable Earth, had prominent participation in several panels and delivered thought-provoking positions.
He commented on the integration of technologies into verification and integrity processes. At Equitable Earth,“project developers don’t submit 100 page pdfs, they submit everything through an online platform that has tutorials to guide them at every step of the way. We centralize carbon accounting too”.
And he added what he has observed “Standards must integrate technology to certify projects efficiently at a larger scale. … We’re seeing all the major players investing in this.”
He also shared his own experience and the urgent need for tropicalization and adaptation of methodologies to local realities.
“This weekend, I visited projects in Brazil’s Mata Atlântica biome to understand local challenges and opportunities. I was blown away by thedepth of expertise from local researchers and universities. Brazil has exceptional scientific expertise across its six distinct biomes. Standardsmust leverage this knowledge, rather than imposing external models that don’t fit local realities.”
“We need a tropicalisation of standards, and that starts by working collaboratively with key institutions that have this expertise. Standards need to build a local presence, closer to where the projects are. Equitable Earth already has team members based in Brazil.”
For Carbon Credit Markets, It was great to see at Equitable Earth (formerly ERS) the evolution of the methodology that we have had the honor to support since its inception back in 2023.
Some participants
Aliança Brasil NBC, in addition to Carla Zorzanelli's masterful handling of the event's dynamics, guests, and participants, the Alliance introduced and hosted Julie Messias, its new Executive Director. The new Board of Directors was also announced: Jana Dallan (Carbonext), Marta Giannichi (MyCarbon), Marcos Preto (Agrocortex), Marco Tuoto (brCarbon), Monique Vann (Wildlife Works), Plinio Ribeiro (Ambipar), and Tiago Ricci (Systemica).
Carbonext and NaturAll Carbon, who were together at the event, had announced on June 16, 2025, a strategic partnership focused on developing carbon credit projects in regenerative agriculture. NaturAll Carbon, an Anglo-Brazilian climate-tech company, is a pioneer in issuing carbon credits in ALM (Agriculture Land Management) projects, validated by Verra's methodology. See the full press release here (in Portuguese).
🌱The union of REDD+ and regenerative agriculture marks a significant advance in Brazil's climate agenda, with a goal of reaching 150,000 hectares by 2027. The movement strengthens Brazil's leadership in nature-based solutions and paves the way for scaling up agricultural practices with high potential for capturing carbon in the soil.
🌍 Detailing the pioneering initiative mentioned above, on May 28, 2025, NaturAll Carbon became the first company in the Americas — and the second in the world — to issue carbon credits verified under Verra's VM0042 Regenerative Agriculture methodology.
Marking a historic advance for the sector and inaugurating a new market that values rural producers for regenerating the soil and combating climate change, 🚜 Fazenda Flórida, in Cassilândia (MS), was the pioneer in issuing credits, adopting practices such as pasture recovery and crop-livestock integration.
Sylvera, even before the event, its representative, who came directly from Texas, United States🇺🇸, had already invited the speakers by email to visit its stand.
Emisfera Agro, a carbon credit startup Itaú Cubo, based in Sorriso - Mato Grosso, sent three representatives and a client, with whom we had a pleasant interaction.
Blood.ag, event producer whose curriculum includes the Global Compact with the events Ambition 2030 and Bioeconomy Amazon Summit (the latter held in Belém), the Forum of Ministers of the Environment for UNEP-UN, and the inauguration of the Biogas and 2nd Generation Ethanol plants for Raízen, among others, and which already has a local network and structure to meet the demands of companies for COP30.
Legislative Advocacy. It was great to see Rio de Janeiro State former Congressman Alessandro Molon present and responding to everything during both days of the CBCC.
A leading figure in the journalism world. Lourival Sant'Anna, a renowned Brazilian journalist and international analyst with extensive experience covering global events, worked throughout the event, including as a moderator. He also knows a lot about carbon credits.
Fastmarkets was also present. It's a global agency that publishes commodity prices and analyses, including carbon credits and offsets. It will hold the Latin America Carbon Forum event on August 11th in São Paulo, in partnership with us. Don't miss out. There's a discount code at this link!
Carbon Credit Markets, ranked 1st in Brazil and 20th worldwide by FeedSpot, this portal reaches professionals in over 100 countries through the web and social media. Relive our daily coverage during COP28 in Dubai, from November 30 to December 12, 2023, and follow the new COP30 Experience section on the portal. More news coming soon!
Closing
The Conferência Brasileira Clima e Carbono 2025 was another event that signals how the preparatory journey towards COP30 is going, which, in addition to being called the COP of the Amazon and the COP of the Turnaround, has also been presented as the COP of Action — and, in some speeches, as the COP of Delivery.
