Brazilian State of Acre and Markit Announce Alliance to Create Registry for REDD+ Environmental Credits

Rio Branco, Brazil, London and New York, NY – Markit, a leading, global financial information services company and the Brazilian State of Acre today announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining how Markit will provide registry services for Acre’s Program of Incentives for Environmental Services – Carbon (Carbon ISA Program).  The program in Acre will be the first of its kind to issue Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) credits at the state or regional level.

The Carbon ISA Program is part of Acre’s State System of Incentives Environmental Services (SISA), which is the state’s comprehensive approach to managing carbon stock, protecting natural resources, and preserving socio-biodiversity.

As part of the agreement, the Markit Environmental Registry will provide infrastructure and technical support to the State of Acre to jointly develop a customized, secure online registry facility for efficient and transparent issuance of credits and for tracking ownership and retirement of credits.  In addition, the Markit Environmental Registry will establish connectivity to link Acre’s numerous partners and facilitate transactions in Brazil and internationally.

Eufran Amaral, Director-President of The Institute of Climate Change of ACRE, said: “With Markit, we intend to partner with the leading global registry of environmental credits.  Having a world-class provider for secure and transparent registry services is vital for the success of our program.”
Kathy Benini, Managing Director and Head of Markit Environmental, said: “We are delighted to be working with Acre State and support its innovative Carbon ISA Program.  Acre is a leader in forest preservation and we look forward to the first listing of Jurisdictional Verified Carbon Unit REDD credits.”

The state of Acre occupies 164,221 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest and its Carbon ISA Program to incentivize emissions reductions through forest and biodiversity preservation is considered by some industry watchers to be creating a blueprint for an international compliance market for REDD+ credits in the future. The state has already adopted forest sector emission reduction targets, signed into law a sectoral REDD+ programme and a private project developer is establishing the first voluntary REDD+ project in the state.

For further information, please contact:
Alex Paidas
Director, Corporate Communications
Markit
Telephone: +1 212 205 7101
Email: alex.paidas@markit.com

Monica Julissa De Los Rios de Leal
Head of Regulatory Department of Environmental Services
Institute of Climate Change and Regulation of Environmental Services
Telephone: +55 68 32231933
Email: monica.julissa@ac.gov.br

Notes to Editors:
About Acre’s State System of Incentives Environmental Services (SISA)
In October 2010 Acre’s state legislature passed the System of Incentives for Environmental Services (SISA), which establishes a system of incentives for a range of environmental services, including forest carbon, water resources, scenic beauty, climate regulation, and others. The SISA explicitly creates flexibility for harmonization and linkages with other future systems of incentives for environmental services on a national, sub-national (state), or international level, and draws on authorities and policies established in Brazil’s 2009 Federal Law that established the National Policy on Climate Change, Acre’s 2007 State Law on Ecological-Economic Zoning, and the directives of the Acre State Policy on Valuation of Forest and Environmental Activities.

About Markit Environmental
Markit’s Environmental business provides infrastructure, services and customised solutions to participants in the voluntary and regulated environmental markets.  The award-winning Markit Environmental Registry lists the majority of leading environmental market standards and provides customers with a unique portfolio approach to managing all their carbon, water and biodiversity assets in one place. The Markit Auction Platform is a state of the art service for auctioning a full array of financial assets, including multiple types of environmental credits, such as emission permits and water quality credits.  For more information, see: www.markitenvironmental.com