Brazilian state to fund carbon offsetting in tourism

Quantum Commodity Intelligence – The Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul is looking to fund startups that implement carbon offsetting projects in the tourism sector, according to a notice seen by Quantum.

The state, which is renowned for its natural beauty, will spend BRL500,000 ($103,000) on "actions that encourage the inventory of greenhouse gases in tourism, in decarbonisation and in promoting the establishment of carbon credit projects to serve the tourism sector," it said.

A call for expressions of interest was launched this week and will be open until January 26.

To be eligible, companies must have revenue under BRL$16 million ($3.3 million) and to have been established in the previous 10 years.

"The contracting of an innovative solution through a special bidding process is justified by the climate commitment made by the state, through the Mato Grosso do Sul Tourism Foundation with the UN/WTO (Glasgow Declaration)," it said.

Mato Grosso do Sul, a vast province that contains savannahs and wetlands, in December signed an agreement with Switzerland-based trading company Mercuria and NGO Earth Innovation Institute for a study into the potential for carbon credits from jurisdictional avoided deforestation (REDD+).

Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding, signed at COP28, Mercuria will fund the six-month study in the agri-producing state.

"The idea is that at the end of this study, we will have identified and determined the market potential that our State has for carbon credits generated from avoided deforestation," said Artur Falcette, executive secretary of the Secretariat of Environment, Development, Science and Technology (Semadesc).