Sources say that Brazil is aiming to attract foreign investment through a green development platform.
Brazil will launch a new platform on Wednesday to attract more foreign investment into sustainable development. The platform will highlight $8 billion worth of promising private sector projects, and look to triple this portfolio within a year.
Four Brazilian officials who spoke anonymously about the program before a Washington launch event, held on the sidelines the meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, said it was a concrete example for Brazil's agenda in its role as G20 Chair this year and host country of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (2025).
The new platform will allow the Brazilian government to select projects that are aligned with their sustainable development priorities, and leverage foreign capital, with the help of the state development bank BNDES. This bank may also provide funding.
According to sources, six pilot projects will be launched, including the production of sustainable aviation, fertilizers, and green hydrogen, as well as reforestation, and the mining of strategic minerals.
The program is a continuation of efforts made by President Luiz inacio Lula da So to promote Brazil as an attractive destination for green investment. Other initiatives include measures for mitigating currency risks, issuing green sovereign bonds and organizing a domestic agenda around "ecological transform" of Latin America’s largest economy.
In 2023, Lula's first year in office, foreign direct investment in Brazil decreased, but recovered 14% to $51 billion in the first eight-month period of this year.
Sources said that the new program to attract foreign investment would initially focus on "nature-based" solutions for climate change, such as reforestation.
One source stated that "Once the project is entered into the platform, they receive a certification and a seal of priority, which will we believe help mobilize private capital from around world -- our primary target -- as also multilateral banks and climate funds."
This is the area we want to focus on between G20 and COP30 at Belem.
According to a second source, by the time Brazil hosts next year's UN climate summit in November, the projects under the new platform will represent an investment of up to $20 billion through debt and equity.
Sources said that the BNDES would lead a secretariat backed by UN's Green Climate Fund to select projects and help match them with funding.
Sources said that in designing the platform, Brazil took into consideration the discussions it hosted with the Group of 20 Major Global Economies regarding the reform of multilateral banking and how countries could showcase their priority projects to foreign investors. (Reporting from Marcela Ayres, Washington; and Bernardo Caram, Brasilia. Editing by Brad Haynes & Marguerita Choy.)
(source: Reuters)
