OGCI and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) have published a new ALMA Brasil technical note exploring how REDD+ emission reductions can be accounted for consistently across projects, states and national programs.
REDD+ supports efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. As carbon markets develop, project-level initiatives are increasingly operating alongside wider government-led programs.
Bringing these different levels together, often referred to as nesting, is important for building credible carbon markets and ensuring emission reductions are accounted for clearly and consistently.
This is becoming increasingly relevant in Brazil, where a national carbon market framework is taking shape alongside established voluntary market activity and the development of jurisdictional REDD+ programs in several states.
Harmonizing REDD+ Accounting Across Scales examines this challenge through the Brazilian state of Pará, where an emerging jurisdictional REDD+ program sits alongside a well-established base of project-level activity.
The technical note draws on research and engagement with governments, carbon market standards, technical and scientific organizations, private sector representatives and other stakeholders.
The work is intended to support a clearer understanding of how different accounting approaches interact, and how greater consistency across different levels of REDD+ activity can help strengthen the integrity, transparency, and effectiveness of forest carbon markets in Brazil and beyond.
As stated in the OGCI position paper on carbon credits: “Given the importance of reducing risks associated with climate change, there are opportunities to accelerate investment today in both high-quality reduction credits that can be scaled now to prevent additional emissions from entering the atmosphere, and removal credits to ensure supply progressively develops at the scale required to limit cumulative emissions and achieve global net-zero ambitions.”
The accounting harmonization this note explores is part of what makes that investment possible with confidence.
The publication forms part of ALMA Brasil, a collaboration between OGCI and IETA focused on practical approaches to integrating REDD+ projects within wider jurisdictional programs.
Since 2024, the initiative has worked with stakeholders in Pará, using the state as a case study to inform wider discussions in Brazil and other jurisdictions developing REDD+ programs.
Developed under the ALMA Brasil initiative, the technical note draws on analysis undertaken in Pará to examine practical options for reconciling accounting across scales while maintaining environmental integrity.
The ALMA Brasil project helps build trust and shared understanding among public authorities, project developers, standards bodies and investors, supporting credible carbon markets that deliver emissions reductions. ALMA Brasil also contributes to OGCI’s broader mission to accelerate climate action and support the development of high-integrity carbon markets.
About ALMA Brasil
ALMA Brasil is a collaborative initiative led by OGCI and IETA to support the development and scale-up of high-integrity carbon marketsforest carbon markets in the Brazilian Amazon. The initiative promotes technical dialogue and research to help address key challenges related to jurisdictional REDD+ programs, project integration and market integrity.
About OGCI
The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative is a CEO-led initiative comprised of 12 of the world’s leading oil and gas companies, producing around a quarter of global oil and gas on an operated basis.
For the past decade, OGCI member companies have worked together to reduce their own emissions, while also driving action across the wider oil and gas industry to reduce emissions to achieve net zero operations in the timeframe of the Paris Agreement.
To help scale emissions reductions across a broader network of companies, OGCI works closely with the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC), an initiative launched at COP28, which comprises 56 signatories representing approximately 40% of global oil production.
As OGDC secretariat, OGCI and its member companies are sharing a decade’s worth of their own expertise reducing emissions with OGDC’s signatories through technical consultations, mentorship programs and longer-term collaborative partnerships. Priority topics include methane emissions abatement, flaring reduction and energy efficiency.
Since 2017, OGCI members have reduced their own total operated methane emissions by 63%, routine flaring by 72%, and carbon intensity by 24%. OGCI members have also invested a cumulative total of $125 billion in low-carbon technologies and solutions, including acquisitions and R&D, since 2017.
In 2016, OGCI launched Climate Investments to manage a $1 billion fund to develop and accelerate the commercial deployment of low emissions technologies.
OGCI’s members are Aramco, bp, Chevron, CNPC, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Occidental, Petrobras, Repsol, Shell and TotalEnergies.
Read more in OGCI’s latest annual Progress Report and see our current Performance Data here.
