Temasek-based GenZero and Trafigura to invest US$100 million in Colombian carbon project

TEMASEK-backed decarbonisation investment platform GenZero and commodities giant Trafigura are jointly investing US$100 million in a reforestation carbon project in Colombia.

The investment will double the size of the project, which aims to generate carbon credits by restoring land degraded by cattle grazing, intensive agricultural activity and forest fires, said both companies in a statement on Monday (Nov 11).

The Brujula Verde project entails the planting of more than 24 million mixed-species trees by forestry management company InverBosques.

The first lot of carbon credits generated from the project is expected in late 2025, and there are plans for direct revenue to be shared with social programmes run for the local communities.

The developers planned to register the project under a reforestation emission reduction methodology by Gold Standard, one of the two main standard setters globally.

However, the technical development of the project followed principles for environmental benchmarking and carbon accounting set up by another standard setter Verra, said the two companies.

“This is to ensure alignment with international standards such as the Core Carbon Principles, and to support the delivery of a high-integrity carbon credit supply,” they added.

Discussions with Colombian government

Both companies are also in talks with the Colombian government on whether the Brujula Verde project would be eligible for a framework that allows the credits generated to be transferred to another country to help it meet its climate targets.

Rules governing the bilateral and international trading of carbon credits comes under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and credits under this framework come with corresponding adjustments.

This means that the emissions being offset are counted only once by the country that bought the credits; the country that produced them gives up the right to use the credits to meet its own national climate targets. This is to avoid the double-counting of underlying emissions reductions or removals when carbon credits are traded.

Under Brujula Verde, trees spread over 10,000 hectares were replanted in 2023 and 2024; plans have been drawn for another 10,000 hectares to be replanted.

Investments into developing and expanding nursery capacities and logistics have contributed to infrastructural development within the Orinoco River Basin, which is where the project is located.

This has supported local employment, with more than 700 direct and indirect jobs created in the community, said the statement.  

They also stated that specialist service providers have taken part in monitoring the project’s biodiversity and carbon performance, including nature data provider Nature Metrics and data processor Opus Insights.