Colombia. With the Colombia Carbon Neutral program, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development seeks to establish strategies to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions at the level of organizations, products and projects in the country.
This topic will also be exhibited at the VII FiMA 2021 International Environmental Fair, which will be held from September 29 to October 2 in person and under biosecurity protocols in Corferias, in Bogotá.
The objective of the program is to bring together companies and unions that are working on the management of their GHG emissions through the approach of strategies such as the measurement of their carbon footprint, emission reduction projects and compensation of these.
"In Colombia we want to be carbon-neutral, and for this we must stop deforestation, make a technification and better management of agricultural lands, and achieve a transition in the productive apparatus to be less dependent on fossil fuels. There are the keys to the reductions of Greenhouse Gases in our country, so that later, through biodiversity, ecological restoration and reforestation we can balance the equation and reach the fulfillment of this goal, "explained Carlos Eduardo Correa, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development.
Colombia Carbon Neutral has three staggered phases in which the recognition of business management will be made: the calculation of the carbon footprint, the management of the carbon footprint and the commitment to carbon-neutrality.
The benefits for the companies that join the program are accompaniment in the calculation of the carbon footprint, in the definition of the footprint management plan, in the definition and management of the carbon-neutrality goal, in the identification and use of tax incentives resulting from the management and reduction of GHG; recognition through national media, recognition at an annual program event and recognition through a carbon-neutrality distinction.
Within the structuring of this program, a distinction will be defined that will be granted to the companies, so that they expand the visibility of their management and the support of the Minambiente.
Benefits for the sector
On the other hand, the SINA Carbon Neutral program is focused on entities and institutes of the National Environmental System (SINA) to measure their organizational carbon footprint, and from this tool, define a strategy for the reduction and compensation of their GHG emissions. These include the Minambiente, the National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA), Colombia's National Natural Parks, the Humboldt Research Institute, the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam), the Pacific Environmental Research Institute, the José Benito Vives de Andréis Marine and Coastal Research Institute (Invemar) and the Amazonian Institute for Scientific Research SINCHI.
My Carbon Footprint
In order to make the management of climate change in the country closer, and make it more visible that the reduction of GHG emissions is available to everyone, the My Carbon Footprint program is created, aimed at all citizens who want to know how from their daily actions they can contribute to national climate change goals.
This initiative will make available tools so that each person can quantify their contribution to the country's GHG emissions, and also recognize options to reduce their individual carbon footprint through simple and easy to implement actions available to all, which together represent great results.
Ideal meeting point
"This important international event is a benchmark fair in Latin America, which promotes actions of sustainability and environmental care in today's society, strengthening synergies between professionals, buyers and exhibitors to show environmental products and services aimed at the productive sector, managing to be the ideal meeting point for the different actors in the chain," said Andrés López, president of Corferias.
