Otavio Yazbek, special for column Capital*
The decree enacted on May 19, instituting the National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction System, brings some important definitions about the country's policy to combat climate change and about the creation of a carbon credit market.
The decree still lacks regulation, but its enactment has resurrected a specter that has haunted the discussion about carbon credits for more than a decade: what role could the CVM (Securities Commission) play in the development of the carbon credit market. carbon credit — formally called CERs (certified emission reductions). This specter is accompanied by another, which is the suspicion that the CVM is failing to promote the development of this market. In both cases, we are dealing with illusions.
There has been a diagnosis for a long time about what is lacking for the development of a carbon credits market in the country: there is a lack of coordination between public administration bodies, uniformity in the treatment of the matter and institutional creativity. What is not lacking is to submit this still incipient market to the tutelage of a regulator who would not have much to add.
Securities market regulators serve to establish and apply rules designed to protect investors and prevent abuses in capturing savings through the issuance of equity or debt securities by private issuers and in their trading on the market. In these environments, investors are vulnerable to insider trading, fraud or market manipulation. It turns out, however, that this kind of protection is unnecessary when dealing with carbon credits.
*Article published on June 13, 2022 in Jornal O Globo. Access the full text on the website: https://blogs.oglobo.globo.com/capital/post/otavio-yazbek-ex-cvm-como-nao-regular-o-mercado-de-carbono.html
