Big Tech’s false solution to ever increasing greenhouse gas emissions? You guessed it, carbon credits

“It’s problematic to trade forest carbon for fossil fuel emissions.”

In 17 November 2024, President Joe Biden became the first sitting US president to visit the Amazon. The day before the G20 meeting in Manaus, Biden flew in his Marine One helicopter over an area that has seen two years of drought. He gave a speech on the edge of the rainforest in which he said the following:

“The most powerful solutions we have to fight climate change is all around us. The world’s forests. Trees breathe carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and yet each minute the world’s chopping down the equivalent of ten soccer fields worth of forest each minute. That’s why we’ve been leader internationally in the fight to end and reverse deforestation by 2030.”

Of course, Biden didn’t mention fossil fuels. Neither did he mention the fact that leaving fossil fuels in the ground is the only solution to the climate crisis.

During his speech, Biden announced the Brazil Restoration and Bioeconomy Finance Coalition. This Coalition aims to raise US$10 billion for “land restoration and bioeconomy-related projects by 2030”, including the conservation and restoration of at least 5.5 million hectares of land.

The members of the Coalition include Agni, Banco do Brasil, BNDES, Biomas, BTG Pactual, Conservation International, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, IDB Invest, Instituto Arapyaú, Instituto Clima e Sociedade, Instituto Itaúsa, Mombak, The Nature Conservancy, Regia Capital, re.green, the World Bank Group, and the World Economic Forum.

Carbon trading is a key part of this deal. The coalition claims it will result in 1.5 billion tons of emissions reductions and removals by 2050.

“A new era for conservation”

BTG Pactual is the largest investment bank in Latin America. In September 2024, BTG Pactual’s subsidiary, Timberland Investment Group, signed a contract with Meta for 1.3 million carbon credits, with an option for a further 2.6 million credits up to 2038.

Mongabay reports that,

The carbon credit reforestation project involves buying up huge swaths of pastureland in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna region and turning them into eucalyptus plantations, which are exacerbating drought conditions.

Since 2020, Timberland Investment Group has opened two new offices in Mato Grosso do Sul, including one next door to the world’s biggest pulp production line, owned by Suzano.

And in June 2024, Timberland Investment Group signed a deal with Microsoft for 8 million carbon credits up to 2043.

Conservation International is Timberland Investment Group’s impact adviser. Billionaire André Esteves is founder and senior partner of BTG Pactual. He is also on Conservation International’s board. And Iuri Rapoport, co-head of environmental, social, and corporate governance at BTG Pactual, is president of Conservation International Brazil’s Deliberative Council.

Given these close ties it should come as no surprise to hear that Timberland Investment Group’s press statement about the deal includes a gushing comment from Conservation International’s CEO M. Sanjayan:

“This is a new era for conservation, and we should applaud both Timberland Investment Group for scaling new ideas and Microsoft for embracing this vision. If we continue to embrace innovation with a clear focus on integrity, our planet, our communities, and our businesses will all benefit.”

“Eucalyptus paying for conserving”

Mark Wishnie, Timber Investment Group’s chief sustainability officer told Ethical Corporation Magazine that half the land will be restored to generate the carbon credits. The other half will be eucalyptus monocultures for the pulp and paper industry. Wishnie also said that the timber will be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council — which has turned into nothing more than a greenwash label for the destructive operations of the timber industry.

Mauricio Bianco, vice-president of Conservation International Brazil, said,

“We aren’t looking at specific farms, but at the watershed. At the end of the day what’s happening here is eucalyptus is paying for conserving and restoring . . .”

But Edmundo Hoppe Oderich of the World Rainforest Movement pointed out that these so-called restoration projects are just another way of expanding the area of eucalyptus plantations in Brazil.

Hoppe Oderich said that,

“It’s not a smart thing to put more land under control of these companies because laws change, governments change, time passes.”

The country already has 7.6 million hectares of eucalyptus monocultures — with severe impacts for Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Monoculture tree plantations are heavily reliant on pesticides, which can easily drift into areas of forest or farmers’ fields. This can have serious impacts on biodiversity.

“Problematic”

In May 2024, Microsoft signed a deal with re.green to buy 3 million carbon credits over 15 years. Six months before that, Microsoft agreed to buy 1.5 million carbon credits by 2032 from Mombak. These two companies plant native trees.

On 22 May 2024, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce announced the Symbiosis Coalition. The Coalition plans to buy a total of 20 million nature-based carbon credits by 2030.

But, as Barbara Haya commented to the New York Times in an article about re.green and Mombak, “it’s problematic to trade forest carbon for fossil fuel emissions”.

That’s because there is a fundamental difference between the carbon stored temporarily in trees and the carbon stored permanently below ground as fossil fuels. Emissions from burning fossil fuels happen immediately. Growing trees can take decades to absorb carbon. And if trees burn, get cut down, die in droughts, floods, or because of pests and diseases, the carbon is returned to the atmosphere.

The Big Tech companies that are buying up millions of carbon credits from Brazil are among the companies that are behind the A.I. boom which is driving a huge increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Microsoft’s emissions have shot up by more than 40% since 2020.

As Devlin Kuyek, a researcher with GRAIN, told Mongabay,

“Because it’s sold as something green, when people hear about it, they believe it’s good for the environment. But it’s not a solution, it’s a form of greenwashing. And it distracts us from the real need to dramatically reduce fossil fuel consumption and transform our food systems.”