The carbon footprint of the BRICS Climate Agenda Forum has been offset for the first time in the history of the international association.

RUSAL, one of the world's largest aluminum producers, and the Roscongress Foundation offset the carbon footprint of the BRICS Climate Agenda in Modern Conditions Forum. The Forum was held in the period from 29 to 30 August 2024 in Moscow as part of the BRICS High-Level Dialogue on Climate Change.

RUSAL's forest climate project is aimed at aerial forest protection of more than 500 thousand hectares of forests in the Krasnoyarsk Territory from fires. The project was launched back in 2019. As part of the project, the company provides patrolling and, if detected, extinguishing of forest fires. The project's activities include the procurement of new vehicles and fire-fighting equipment, as well as the hiring, training and medical care of smoke-jumpers. In spring 2024, the climate results for the first five years of the project implementation were verified by the Saint Petersburg Forestry Research Institute (SPbFRI), following which over 1.3 million carbon units were credited to the company's account in the Russian Carbon Units Registry.

The carbon footprint offsetting consists of several steps: measuring the carbon footprint of the event, calculating the number of carbon units required to offset it, verifying the calculations, debiting carbon units from the company's account in the registry and transferring them to offset the carbon footprint. The carbon footprint calculations of the BRICS Climate Agenda Forum 2024 were verified by LLC Ecopolis Certification and Service, a strategic partner and official representative of PES, the international validation and verification body from Qatar, in Russia. The carbon units are transferred using the Thread of Nature platform, operated by the Roscongress Foundation. The platform allows transactions with carbon units and quota fulfillment units based on the marketplace principle. The Carbon Offset Certificate was issued by the Russian Carbon Units Registry.

Vladimir Ilyichev, deputy minister of еconomic development of the Russian Federation: "The outpacing development of the BRICS economies poses a significant challenge to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning to low-carbon development. As an active BRICS member, Russia is working to achieve climate goals, including by developing joint initiatives. These include not only projects to reduce emissions using technology, but also nature-based solutions that can considerably contribute to international climate protection efforts. Harnessing natural potential for climate change mitigation and adaptation became a new area in developing sustainable development strategies and climate policy. Let me emphasize that it is extremely important to create conditions for the joint implementation of such projects. Another important task is to create sustainable market demand for climate project results, i.e., carbon units. Openness and publicity are key principles for building trust and developing international carbon markets. Offsetting the carbon footprint of the BRICS Climate Agenda Forum with carbon units credited for implementation of the forest climate project is another step towards the development of effective market mechanisms in the field of emission reduction, which contributes to both economic development and the achievement of climate goals in the BRICS countries".

Evgeniy Nikitin, CEO of RUSAL: "Our project for aerial protection of forests in the Krasnoyarsk Territory from fires helps prevent and quickly extinguish fires in hard-to-reach areas with unique forests rich in biological diversity. This in turn helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is one of RUSAL's strategic goals".

Alexander Stuglev, chairman of the board and director of the Roscongress Foundation: "It is extremely important for us to embrace and support climate initiatives within the framework of Roscongress Foundation events. Our comprehensive expertise in organizing international dialogues enables us to implement climate initiatives and communicate them to the widest audience, interested in supporting and advancing green programs."

Oksana Gogunskaya, Director of Kontur, Operator of the Russian Carbon Units Registry: "I am proud that the Russian Carbon Units Registry was instrumental in offsetting the carbon footprint of such a significant event for the first time in the history of BRICS. This action demonstrates the readiness of the association's countries to use advanced climate mechanisms to achieve sustainable development and fulfill international climate commitments".

A climate project is a set of measures aimed at reducing or preventing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as increasing their absorption. Carbon units (CU) are a verified result of a climate project, expressed as a mass of greenhouse gases equivalent to a ton of carbon dioxide. Carbon footprint is the total volume of greenhouse gas emissions generated during the provision of services, which includes direct greenhouse gas emissions (generated as a result of business and other activities) and indirect greenhouse gas emissions (related to the consumption of electricity, thermal energy, and other resources used for business and other activities and provided by external facilities). Carbon unit offsetting is the cancellation of carbon units by debiting them from the account of the owner of carbon units and crediting them to the withdrawal account. The company can offset CUs against its own carbon footprint or transfer them to other interested parties.