?? Discover how forests in Mexico are being protected with ‘removals’

Hi there,

Today, we're excited to share a conversation between Ed Hewitt, our Natural Climate Solutions Lead and Santiago Santiago Espinosa de los Monteros, CEO of Toroto and developer of our exciting new portfolio project, Conhuás. In this article, they discuss the project's community-led approach to carbon removal and explain what is uniquely special about this nature-based venture. Scroll down to the company news section to learn more.

The next newsletter you receive from us will arrive on the final day of the COP16. It's exciting to think of all the developments the next two weeks will likely hold for ecosystems globally. From all of us at Respira, we wish you an interesting and optimistic biodiversity conference.

• Carbon Pulse reports warnings from the ICVCM that the carbon markets face ‘huge uncertainty’ if Trump is elected.
• Independent shares the news that King Charles will miss COP29.
• BBC News reports that Google will use nuclear power to meet it’s rising energy demands for AI.
• Carbon Pulse shares that Verra has launched an additionality tool aligned to the ICVCM’s CCPs.
• Reuters covers Germany’s new $3 billion fund for decarbonisation subsides.
• Bloomberg says that bankers know neither how to report biodiversity impact nor profit from it.
• Carbon Pulse says that an Argentinian JREDD programme will issue around 10 million carbon credits in Q4.
• The Guardian says that ‘trees and land absorbed nearly no CO2 last year’. Rich Gilmore questions the headline on LinkedIn.
• Bloomberg UK reports on the appointment of Emma Pinchback as the new head of the UK’s Climate Change Committee.
• Financial Times writes about the finance leaders not going to Baku. The bosses of Bank of America, BlackRock, Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank will all skip the conference.
• ESG Investor quotes our Natural Climate Solutions Lead, Ed Hewitt, in its article on the ACMI’s new strategic partnership with the VCMI, the ICVCM and IETA. This will enable the ACMI to use the ICVCM’s CCPs to build trust in its carbon markets. Ed says that the current size of the market in Africa, and globally, remains significantly less than its full potential. Read more on the VCMI ’s press release.
• Carbon Pulse gives a preview of COP16 with its ‘temperature check’ on the world’s nature pledges.
• Carbon Brief shares that the UK missed the deadline to submit a nature pledge ahead of COP16.
• Reuters updates readers on the third month of Brazilian wildfires.
• Carbon Pulse shares an interview on the impacts of CORSIA on voluntary carbon trade.
• Carbon Pulse covers a report warning of the challenges the VCM faces in determining high quality.
• IATA will host a symposium to give airlines the opportunity to purchase Eligible Emissions Units (EEU) to meet their Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) Phase 1 offsetting obligations.
• Timberland Investment Group shares a press release that the UK government and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, announced a $55 million commitment to reforestation in Latin America, including in the Cerrado biome, one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in Brazil.
• Carbon Pulse shares analysis that a credit surplus will not negatively impact VCM 2.0.
• Reuters reports that Meta has agreed to buy up to 3.9 million carbon offset credits from Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual's forestry arm through 2038.
• Emergent announces that Pará will become the first Brazilian state to secure finance from the LEAF Coalition after signing a $180 million deal.
• Grain ?contrasts Bill Gate’s anti-tree planting rhetoric with the actions of Microsoft, which in June 2024 purchased 8 million carbon credits from the Timberland Investment Group (TIG), a fund owned by the Brazilian agribusiness lender BTG Pactual.
• Mongabay comments on the Para carbon credit deal, suggesting that its road ahead is a bumpy one.
• Carbon Pulse reports that UN A6 Supervisory Body has skipped over the negotiation stage to hopefully drive agreement at COP29.
• Business Green reports that King, the developer of Candy Crush, has purchased more than 500 credits from a restoration project on the South Downs in the UK.
• Reuters covers Indonesia’s plans to launch a green economy fund by selling carbon emission credits from projects such as rainforest preservation and aims to raise $65 billion by 2028.
• The Guardian reports that Sports England’s chair, Chris Boardman, is urging the Premier League to step up with its environmental activities.

Quiet Climate Action: Fortune Global 500 Climate Progress Continues

Climate Impact Partners considers the state of corporate climate action in its sixth annual research report.

It assesses the state of Fortune Global 500 companies’ climate commitments, including the numbers of SBTi-aligned targets (currently sitting around the 6,300 mark).

Key takeaways

• Encouragingly, the report found that the number of companies setting net-zero commitments has continued rising. This shows that criticism of corporate environmentalism has not discouraged business leaders from pursuing net zero, rather it has quietened their promotion of this work.
• It reported that 45 percent of companies plan to be net zero by 2050. When you consider that just eight percent of companies were aiming for this target in 2020, this figure is quite dramatic.?
• A total of 42 percent of companies explicitly stated they will use carbon credits to meet their carbon neutral or net zero targets. This is a 2 percent increase from last year.
• The report states: “The myth that corporate strategies involving carbon credits comes at the cost of rigorous reduction targets is further debunked. Companies committed to using carbon credits are twice as likely to have a near-term, science-based target and three times more likely to have a net-zero target for their entire value chain.”
• However, the report also revealed that corporates are challenged by a lack of consistency in claims guidance. This is reflected in a small decrease in the number of companies committed to setting SBTi-aligned net-zero targets in 2024.

Bonus report

Microsoft has shared a new report on investing in nature. It explains the importance of protecting and restoring ecosystems and shares the company’s work in this area. Going forward, it advocates for greater incentives to encourage corporate investment in ecosystems – perhaps a reward-based system for investing in nature-based solutions.

Ntakata Mountains

The 16 carbon champions working with Carbon Tanzania in the Ntakata Mountains Project have had a refresher training. The teams works directly with communities in Tanzania, delivering information sessions on the climate crisis and the need to protect the country’s forests. Read more here .

Makame Savannah

Honeyguide, an NGO that supports Makame Savannah in strengthening its governance and protection activities, highlighted the project in its October newsletter. It wrote: “Makame WMA experienced a remarkable 980% revenue increase from 2017 to 2021, driven by effective governance and carbon credits. From 2023 to 2024, revenue from carbon credits rose by 130%...in 2023 alone, residents received nearly $200,000 to support local investments.” Read more here .

In conversation...

As teased in the introduction of this newsletter, you can head on over to our blog to read a great conversation about our new flagship portfolio project, Conhuás. Our Natural Climate Solutions Lead, Ed Hewitt, asks CEO Santiago Santiago Espinosa de los Monteros all about his commitment to this nature-based project.

"At Toroto, we firmly believe that permanence is the daughter of governance. We’re not going to have enough resources as a species to fight the climate crisis twice, so it’s extremely important that the efforts that we’re able to finance become permanent, and that can only be done by carefully rewiring local economies at the community level to make sure that we’re able to have regenerative economies; economies that incentivize the increase in ecosystem services, incentivize the increased health of the nature that is held by communities all throughout the Global South, and Conhuás is no exception," Santiago said.

Read the full conversation here .

• 21 Oct-1 Nov, COP16, UN, Colombia
• 22-23 Oct, Net Zero Festival, Business Green, London
• 22-24 Oct, Energy Transition Summit, FT, London & Online
• 22-24 Oct, 2024 Impact Forum, GIIN, Amsterdam (Susannah Preston, our Head of Impact Capital Formation, will attend. Do let her know if you'd like to meet at the event)
• 24-25 Oct, Bloom, Trellis (formerly GreenBiz) at COP16,?Cali

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Respira is an impact-driven carbon finance business. We channel private capital into the world’s best carbon projects to scale natural and technological climate solutions through high-quality carbon credits. The majority of these investments are directed to the global south to tackle the climate crisis, prevent biodiversity loss and empower the communities where climate change hits hardest.