Carbon tax: What it is and why it is important to address climate change?
October 9, 2020. The carbon tax was established in 2016 as a response to the commitments made in the Paris Agreement, a covenant in which 195 countries agreed to reduce emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions through mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
Colombia joined this mission by setting it as a goal a 20% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030; and by article 221 of the Law 1819 of 2016 became effective carbon tax to further this goal, which seeks to:
- Reduce the demand for fossil fuels, mostly consumed by large industries.
- Encourage projects and forestry energy transition through its not causation.
- Raise funds necessary to implement actions that will strengthen the National System of Natural National Parks, cope with coastal erosion and deforestation and promote activities with a focus on peace and sustainability.
How does it work?
This tax is paid from 1 January 2017. All users of liquid fuels should pay this tribute. Distributors will be required to pay to your provider tax, and this, in turn, you must transfer it to the Address of Taxes and National Customs (DIAN). The other citizens, that is to say, those who purchase the hydrocarbons to the distributors, it is paid for as an additional value in the price.
What is its importance?
The carbon tax has become an economic tool is important for the reduction of CO2 emissions, the protection of forests and species of flora and fauna, as well as the improvement of the quality of life of the communities.
With the decree 926, issued in the year 2017, the taxable person within the tax, have the possibility of having recourse to the figure of the not causation through the purchase of certified emission reductions. The end user or consumer may seek reductions or removals of GHG emissions through conservation projects inside or outside your organization.
This alternative compensation has opened the door to environmental projects, which enable you to preserve a number of hectares of native forest and be a means of funding for the improvement of the quality of life of diverse communities in Colombia.
BIOFIX, is one of the expert companies in the country in the structuring and implementation of nature-based solutions. One of their lines of work more important is the development of a REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation).
By 2020, the company has structured 7 projects under this mechanism, through which it is seeking to preserve close 993.724 hectares of humid tropical forests and very humid in Colombia, benefit 11.826 ethnic families afro-colombian and indigenous people, and cast about 12’up to 200,000 certificates of reduction of GHG emissions.
“The carbon bonds represent a significant source of funding climate. Through the sale of carbon credits, councils and collective indigenous reserves receive resources to strengthen its governance, design, and implement green business, monitoring deforestation and reforestation, and to facilitate access to improved housing and health. Currently there are more than 20 tips that make part of this funding mechanism,” says Ana Milena Silver Fajardo, Executive Director of BIOFIX.
In the future it is expected that more conservation projects are implemented in different areas of Colombia, with the aim to contribute to the compensation of emission which by law must be fulfilled by the companies, as well as the improvement of the quality of life of thousands of people the length and breadth of the territory and the protection of hundreds of species of flora and fauna.
How to be linked to these initiatives?
If you're the owner of land with forest cover and you want to get economic incentives to finance your activities, you can click on the form below and we will contact you: https://www.biofix.co/contactanos
If you are a company, subject to the carbon tax, and you want to lower your costs by not causation of the tax with carbon bonds, you can click on the form below and we will contact you: https://www.biofix.co/contactanos