An initiative to offset carbon emissions resulting from the Annual Meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, April 3–5, will benefit low-income farmers in a rural community in that country’s state of Tocantins.
The Bank will purchase 11,000 Verified Emission Reductions (VERs) from the Ecologica Institute, a socio-environmental NGO in Brazil, through international environmental brokerage firm CO2e. The funds will finance a project to substitute the use of fossil fuels with biodiesel in Tocantins Bananal Island.
The biodiesel will fuel water pumps for small-scale irrigation, traction for agro forestry and energy production for small-scale farmers. The project will run for four years.
The IDB initiative will offset carbon emissions of the estimated 9,000 participants in the IDB/IIC Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors.
This move will result in the first carbon neutral meeting held by a multilateral bank. Greenhouse gases resulting from the meeting will be offset through the purchase of VERs. Emissions are calculated on the basis of each participant's long-distance and local travel, as well as local accommodations and the conference venues. This year’s annual meeting will generate an estimated 11,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
“We are committed to doing all we can to address the issue of climate change in the region and provide sustainable development opportunities to local communities,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno. “We look forward to applying the same concept to other Bank activities.”
The Bank is aware that rising sea levels, increased water temperatures, melting glaciers and warming moorlands represent a serious risk to the agriculture, energy, fishing and tourism sectors in Latin America and the Caribbean and to the well-being of communities.
The goal of a carbon neutral Annual Meeting supports the objectives of the recently approved IDB Environment and Safeguards Compliance Policy, which promotes the reduction and control of greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon-offset initiative is an example of the Bank’s commitment to combat climate change in the region, focusing on greenhouse gas mitigation, renewable energy and energy efficiency, as set forth in the Action Plan for Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, Greenhouse Gas Mitigation and “Carbon Finance” approved by the IDB Board of Directors in 2005.
The Bank recognizes that many sustainable projects at the local level need financial support. Hard currency from carbon finance can make a great difference to these projects. To that end, the IDB will purchase VERs from outside the regulated market that has been established through the Kyoto Protocol, which allows the Bank to invest in a small project which may not otherwise have been able to proceed.
Ecologica will carry out the baseline and emission reduction studies and the tracking and monitoring of the emission reductions in Tocantins. The project will use the Gold Standard Methodology and Tools and the Social Carbon Monitoring Methodology and will be verified by a third party.