Plantar, a Brazilian pig-iron producer, this month became the world’s first company to obtain reforestation-based carbon credits as part of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Some green groups vigorously question the carbon-reduction assumptions underlying the credits, which companies and governments in developed nations may purchase and eventually use to meet greenhouse-gas-reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

The credits were awarded on the strength of Plantar’s efforts to avoid using coke made from coal to fuel its pig-iron production, thereby keeping greenhouse-gas emissions lower than they’d otherwise be. Plantar instead uses charcoal made with wood from its company-run, 41,000-hectare (101,000-acre) eucalyptus plantation, 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) of which qualified for use in the CDM project.

Controversial approach