July 1, 2014
Regarding the increased number of people moving around Brazil during the World Cup, especially concerning flights and cars as transport, the greenhouse gases emissions also increased. With that in mind, some organizations started partnerships to neutralize the harmful effects of these emissions through carbon credits’ purchase, and we are very proud to see SOCIALCARBON projects selected to participate in this action.
Purchasing carbon credits, a company compensates greenhouse gas emissions in a place by removing or preventing the emissions elsewhere. This way, by buying credits, a company invests directly in a low carbon project. With SOCIALCARBON, the idea is to bring not only positive environmental impacts for the country, but also provide social and economic benefits to local communities.
One of the companies that acquired VCS + SOCIALCARBON credits was TAM Airlines, in a partnership with Sustainable Carbon, one of the developers accredited by SOCIALCARBON Standard. The goal is to offset the emissions from the company’s flights during the World Cup. According to Claudia Sender, TAM Airlines’ president, the company is compensating more than five times the emissions corresponding to the increase in domestic flights during the tournament (there are 750 new flights). The compensation is being made with credits linked to six ceramic factory’s projects in Brazil, which replaced fossil fuels with renewable biomass, significantly reducing the greenhouse gases emissions. In addition, the projects bring social actions for about five thousand people from local communities, such as investment in education, sport and health. The selected projects are in the states of São Paulo, Pernambuco, Tocantins, Alagoas, Ceará and Rio de Janeiro.
FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) also offset emissions by purchasing VCS + SOCIALCARBON carbon credits. According to their official website, “the low carbon projects’ portfolio in Brazil was carefully selected, along with BP Target Neutral carbon management nonprofit program. All projects went through a rigorous process and meet the standards set by the International Carbon Reduction and Offsetting Alliance (ICROA) “. The group of ceramic projects selected by FIFA is composed of four individual projects in Rio de Janeiro, Tocantins, Pernambuco and Alagoas. The projects replace native wood with waste wood from renewable plantations, besides contributing to local causes, such as programs for children with cancer, rehabilitation center for drug users and a women’s soccer team.
For more information about the compensations, visit TAM magazine’s website www.tamnasnuvens.com.br/revista/site/ and FIFA’s official compensation website https://worldcupoffset.fifa.com/pt/initiate. You can also send an e-mail to info@socialcarbon.org for more information about SOCIALCARBON or to share your story with us!