In November, the world will turn its attention to Brazil for COP 30, the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference. With nearly 60% of the Amazon Rainforest, the country is by far the leader in the global carbon credit market. Today, nine Brazilian states are already developing or structuring Jurisdictional REDD+ programs based on state-level reductions in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from lower deforestation and forest degradation. The study “The Great Climate Solution of the Amazon Rainforest and the Carbon Market” by the Earth Innovation Institute (EII) indicates that these states could receive, starting in 2026, an amount ranging from US$10.8 to US$21.6 billion. The amounts would be paid through 2030.

Discussions on jurisdictional REDD+ (JREDD+) formally began at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2005, with the first decisions on the mechanism being adopted in 2007 during COP 13 in Bali. In Brazil, JREDD+ began to take shape in 2008 with the creation of the Amazon Fund. Subsequently, in 2015, the country established its National REDD+ Strategy, culminating in the creation of the National Commission for REDD+. However, the resources from jurisdictional REDD+ experiences, which until then had been received in the form of donations, compensated for only about 4% of the verified results in terms of emissions reductions.

Faced with this challenge, state governments have decided in recent years to explore the sale of carbon credits associated with their JREDD+ programs, accounting for the reductions for the forest emissions reductions achieved in their territories. To this end, they are adopting robust international certification standards focused exclusively on JREDD+ credits, such as ART/TREES — Architecture for REDD+ Transactions, currently the main standard adopted by jurisdictions seeking to access the voluntary carbon market. This approach expands financing opportunities, including through the participation of private actors and coalitions such as Leaf — an international public-private partnership that purchases forest credits, as in the case of Pará.

Article 43 of Law 15,042/2024 of the Brazilian Emissions Trading System (SBCE), approved last December, also regulates JREDD+ programs and prohibits the advance sale of credits from these programs when it involves a firm obligation for future delivery before the verification and issuance of credits. On the other hand, the same legislation expressly allows conditional contracts, i.e., agreements whose execution depends on prior verification and certification of emission reductions by a recognized standard, such as ART/TREES.

Unlike commodities, verified REDD+ credits do not have immediate liquidity and are not fungible. Therefore, JREDD+ credits are traded through conditional transactions, in which the sale occurs only after independent verification. Even when a fixed price is referenced, conditions precedent make it clear that payment and delivery are conditional on this procedure. 

JREDD+ corresponds to public policies implemented by governments that value aggregate performance across the jurisdiction (country or state) in reducing deforestation and forest degradation. Revenues are distributed as benefits among different segments—indigenous peoples, traditional communities, small and medium-sized farmers, large producers, and public authorities—according to distribution strategies defined by each program. Participation in these programs is voluntary, and the different actors remain autonomous in the management and use of their territories and natural resources, and may even develop private REDD+ projects. 

The percentage distribution of JREDD+ resources is determined in a participatory manner among different segments of society, through structured consultative processes involving relevant stakeholders in each program. These processes follow principles of transparency, inclusion, and equity, including participation mechanisms that seek to include women and young people and pay special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples, traditional communities, farmers, and other rural actors. The consultations are conducted in accordance with the social and environmental safeguards for REDD+ agreed upon by the Parties to the Climate Convention and interpreted for the Brazilian context, with the aim of gathering contributions and establishing agreements on the formulation of the program and the criteria for sharing its benefits.

In jurisdictional REDD+ programs, the state assumes the costs and responsibilities for the design, implementation, and monitoring of the program, as well as the risks associated with its performance—as is the case with other public policies. On the other hand, in private REDD+ projects, the risks and responsibilities fall on the developers and participating communities, including binding land use agreements — even without a guarantee that deforestation will not be displaced to neighboring areas.

Even so, the coexistence of jurisdictional and private carbon credit generation systems is entirely feasible. JREDD+ programs recognize the existence of private projects in their territories and are required to deduct the credits generated by these projects from their jurisdictional accounts in order to avoid double counting and ensure the environmental integrity of the system.

Despite the history and international and national regulatory framework governing JREDD+, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) filed a lawsuit—still pending—questioning the instruments for trading carbon credits signed under the jurisdictional REDD+ program of the State of Pará. The lawsuit argues that the contract signed, even with clauses conditional on the verification of results, constitutes a form of advance sale of credits.

On other occasions, the MPF has also expressed concerns about the participatory processes conducted in the states of Pará and Tocantins, pointing out possible limitations in the time and scope of the hearings and workshops held. However, both states have been promoting extensive consultation processes with the different segments that stand to benefit from their JREDD+ programs, with stages previously agreed upon with the representatives of these segments themselves, in order to ensure representativeness, transparency, and effective social participation.

Although part of the legal controversy is related to the recent enactment of Law 15.042/2024, which is still awaiting regulation by presidential decree, it should be noted that many of the doubts and misinterpretations stem from a limited understanding of what jurisdictional REDD+ programs are, how they are structured, and how they operate. These initiatives are fundamental public policies for reducing deforestation and forest degradation—the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the country.

On the eve of a crucial conference for the future of global environmental policies, it is urgent to promote a stable and clear regulatory environment in Brazil that ensures legal certainty for federatives entities and their partners and allows the country to maintain its leadership and expand its participation in carbon markets through JREDD+ credits. In addition, it is essential to broaden the national debate on what+ jurisdictional REDD+ programs actually are and what their benefits are. Currently, JREDD+ is the most readily deployable climate financing mechanism for aligning public policies and environmental conservation in Brazil in the short term, contributing decisively to the country's goals under the Paris Agreement.

Luiza Muccillo, Líder de Estratégias de Financiamento Climático do EII Brazil

Daniel Nepstad, diretor-executivo do EII 

Ronaldo Seroa da Motta, professor da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Uerj)

Monica De Los Rios, diretora do EII Brazil 

Thuanny Vieira, Coordenadora de Comunicação EII Brazil