The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, made the first voluntary carbon offset donation of the Rio+20 on Thursday, June 14, at 3:00 pm. The act was part of the launching of the online tool that allows for voluntary individual offset of greenhouse gas emissions generated by air travel to Rio de Janeiro to participate in the Conference.

The online tool allows you to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions, and the participants of the conference will have the chance to buy Certified Emission Reduction (CERs) to offset the emission related to their activities in the conference. With each payment comes a receipt that proves the offset mechanism.

The National Organizing Committee for Rio+20 assigned volunteers to aid the participants in offsetting the emissions of their air travel. They were given tablets with emissions calculators and credit card machines that accept major international credit cards.
The volunteers will be at Riocentro, Parque dos Atletas and Arena da Barra.

The tool integrates the National Greenhouse Gasses Emissions Offsetting Strategy  for Rio+20. It was designed by the Brazilian Government in partnership with UNDP-Brazil and ‘Caixa Econômica Federal’, Brazil’s federal savings bank.

The Strategy includes, moreover, efforts towards the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions generated by the Conference and its respective offsetting by projects conducted within the frameworks of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).