Voluntary Certification of Carbon Emission in Brazil - The Experience of an Electricity Trader

Abstract

Few countries in the world have such availability of natural resources as Brazil. Even so, the country records increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to electricity, and this is due to political and economic factors. This chapter shows the experience of the largest Brazilian power trader in its pioneering effort to develop voluntary certifications (2011) in power buy and sell transactions, along with other energy efficiency actions. The initiative has accumulated 9 years’ experience with more than 1600 units in different industries, using a methodology aligned with the Paris Agreement. The chapter presents the calculation methodology and the safeguards that ensure information integrity and verification of the certified indicators. Only renewable sources are used in this methodology, such sources being qualified as incentivized by their sustainability characteristics being small-size power plants (less than 30 MW of capacity installed).