Brazil’s senate pushes back vote on carbon credit market bill

Brazil’s senate postponed a vote on a bill to regulate the carbon credit market from November 5 to November 12.

The senate decided to postpone the vote "given the complexity of the topic and the fact that the national congress is working semi-remotely," the upper house said in a statement.  

After the municipal elections concluded at the end of October many lawmakers who were involved in political campaigns have been working remotely.

Despite the postponement, the senate recognized the urgency of the bill. 

"I consider the bill fundamental for Brazil's efforts to lead the way towards sustainable development, regulating the carbon market and making the rules in relation to this topic clearer," senate president Rodrigo Pacheco said in the statement.

The bill, known as PL 182/2024, sets a deadline of five years for the full implementation of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions trading system (SBCE), which establishes emission caps and a bond market.

It was approved by the lower house last December and was sent to the senate. If senators make changes it must go back to the lower house for another vote.

According to senator Leila Barros, the rapporteur of the bill in the senate, "more than 80%" of what was approved by the lower house will be kept by senators, so it is likely that once returned final approval will be quick.

In a recent interview with BNamericas, Arnaldo Jardim, a lawmaker of the centrist Cidadania party and lower house chair of the special committee for the energy transition and green hydrogen production, said he was expecting approval of the bill before the 29th UN Conference on Climate Change, COP29, on November 11-22 in Baku, Azerbaijan.