OREANDA-NEWS.  June 26, 2014. ArcelorMittal Brazil donated 70,000 tonnes of carbon credits to Brazil’s environmental ministry to compensate for greenhouse gas emissions during the football World Cup. The company responded to the ministry’s public invite to reduce emissions and received a ‘low carbon seal’ from Izabella Teixeira, Brazilian environment minister.

‘’With this initiative, ArcelorMittal Brazil contributes to sustainability as a result of our clean development mechanism (CDM) project’’ stated Guilherme Abreu, ArcelorMittal Brazil environment general manager.

ArcelorMittal is joined by 10 other companies in this initiative. Donations amounted to 420,500 carbon credits, which exceeds the government target of 59,200 credits. The government programme is intended to compensate mainly for gas emissions from construction activities and energy consumption in stadiums during the World Cup.

The CDM is a mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets. The CDM encourages projects in developing countries that reduce carbon emissions by allocating credits to certified projects, which may be traded in emissions trading schemes.

Two CDM projects are developed at ArcelorMittal Brazil to improve energy efficiency of the steelmaking process. Heat recovery project has the potential to reduce emission of approximately 2.5 million tonnes of CO?. The second project refers to electricity cogeneration through the reuse of steel mill flue gas. Two projects have the potential to save the emission of approximately three million tonnes of CO2 during their lifetime.

The company also develops other projects to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. ArcelorMittal BioFlorestas produces charcoal from eucalyptus trees in two states – Bahia and Minas Gerais – covering 16 municipalities in five regions. Each eucalyptus tree can be cut and allowed to re-grow three times – taking 21 years in total - and still be of the right quality for producing charcoal.  In order to ensure the operation is sustainable, there is a carefully calculated planting schedule to maintain the same number of trees in the forests at all times. Charcoal is used as an alternative to using coke in the ironmaking process.