Entrevista Exame by Leandro Fonseca - 11/24/2022
By Writing Team
Posted in December 22, 2022
In an interview with EXAME, Plínio Ribeiro, president of Biofílica, highlights the importance of private sector participation in discussions about the environment.
Biofílica Ambipar, a company in the field of carbon credits and neutralization, was present at COP27, a UN event that took place in Egypt. In an interview with EXAME’s ESG team, Plínio Ribeiro, CEO of Biofílica, commented on the urgency of the private sector in making decisions related to climate and the importance of participating in global events such as the Conference of the Parties.
According to Ribeiro, the atmosphere at the 27th COP was one of “cautious optimism”. The executive commented that much has been said about Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which discusses the issue of governance in cooperation and regulation of the global carbon market – mainly points 6.2 and 6.4.
“What I have been following are the unofficial negotiations. Discussions are shifting, that is, private sector companies are no longer so patient to wait for what is happening here at the UN, so they are developing their initiatives more on their own, they are accelerating the agenda more, it is giving optimism to the people who produce carbon credits in Brazil from forest restoration and forest conservation”, commented Ribeiro on what he calls the movement of voluntary markets.
The director felt that there are many initiatives in Brazil involving traditional communities, indigenous peoples and farmers, large and small. According to him, it is necessary to connect the official removal with the movements of the voluntary markets to “not have a loss of confidence, a loss of integrity and even a risk for these communities and people who are there at the end”, warned Ribeiro.
More than a year ago, Biofílica became Biofílica Ambipar Environment, in partnership with the Ambipar group. Ribeiro points out that it is important for a company that operates with carbon credits to be where these discussions take place in order to understand where the world is heading.
The CEO was concerned about the importance of being able to access the key to environmental discussions: “Here is a place where you can find civil society leaders more and more, and with the main CEOs of large Brazilian companies. So, it ends up being an excellent meeting point, a point of relationship, to show that we are on the agenda, to show and share the initiatives, to learn from the initiatives that are adhered to”.
“It’s a bit paradoxical. You have to come to Egypt to understand what is under control in Brazil, but it is true, because here is the only place you can – within a period of one to two weeks – have access and contact and relationship with everyone state governments, including the Amazonian states, where we have most of the projects, where we can interact directly with the development banks”, concluded Ribeiro.
