Gazprom and Vitol to start trading rainforest
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The REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) scheme is currently being negotiated at the United Nations climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico.
UN officials hope that energy and major industrial companies affected by the European Union carbon-trading scheme will ultimately buy permits covering areas of rainforest to offset their emissions.
The scheme will take years to implement, but negotiators believe the outline of a deal on REDD could be the most successful element of this year's UN climate change conference.
In the meantime, an early version of the scheme will sell permits accredited by the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) by the end of this year.
InfiniteEarth, a Hong Kong development project backed by a handful of private investors, is selling permits that cover 100,000 hectares of Indonesian rainforest. Its costs include paying the local landowners for a licence to protect the area, getting the certification and installing rangers and guards around the project.
The company said on Tuesday that its first customers will include Gazprom Marketing & Trading in the UK, Germany's Allianz GmbH and Switzerland's Vitol.
Voluntary carbon credits currently trade at $2 to $10 and are generally bought by companies hoping to improve their environmental image or airlines that can sell them on to passengers who want to offset the emissions of their flights.
Buyers like Gazprom, which committed to taking the permits from InfiniteEarth's project before it began, are expected to trade the credits like any other commodity.
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