The Brazilian and French presidents have announced a €1 billion investment plan to address climate change and deforestation in the Amazon, as Brazil strives to boost international funding for environmental protection under its G20 Presidency.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Emmanuel Macron launched the programme during the French president’s three-day visit to Brazil in the Amazon city of Belem, which will host next year’s COP30 UN climate summit.
The investment plan seeks to raise €1 bln in public and private financing over the next four years, and will involve Brazilian state-run banks, such as the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and Banco da Amazonia (BASA), as well as the French investment agency.
“Our ambition is to help transform the economy through investing in innovation, in order to go beyond an approach focused only on conservation,” said the agreement.
“We consider it urgent to focus our efforts on establishing, by COP30, a bioeconomy model that considers the three dimensions of sustainable development — social, economic, and environmental — and allows us to reverse biodiversity loss and tackle climate change.”
Last month, Brazil kickstarted an initiative to lay the foundation for a common framework on bioeconomy, aimed at shaping new policies and unlocking investments in the conservation and sustainable management of forests.
Led by four Brazilian ministries, the G20 Initiative on Bioeconomy (GIB) is tasked with drafting high-level principles to be an integral part of the Rio Declaration, set to be adopted by G20 countries in November.
“We want to develop strategies to support Indigenous Peoples and increase investments in the bioeconomy,” said Macron, as he marked the first visit of a French president to Brazil in 11 years.
NEW FINANCING MECHANISM
The investment plan aims to fund research projects in Brazil and French Guiana, as well as create an innovation hub to bolster partnerships between French and Brazilian universities and green companies.
France and Brazil will also explore establishing an international financing mechanism for conserving tropical forests, the Tropical Forests Forever Fund, which would mobilise resources from private financial institutions and sovereign funds.
“The capital invested in the fund will be allocated to green assets, and the revenues will go towards the preservation of tropical forests,” said the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.
“A fixed annual amount will be paid for each hectare of standing forest.”
In his speech, Lula reiterated the government’s commitment to halting deforestation in the Amazon by 2030, as announced during last year’s COP28 UN climate summit.
During the meeting in Belem, Macron proposed that Brazil appoint a new member to the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB), the UK-France joint initiative looking to support the development of a global biodiversity credit market. The panel already includes the Brazilian Indigenous leader Almir Narayamoga Surui.
Brazil and France also launched “a coalition to combat greenwashing in the voluntary carbon market and finalise negotiations on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement by COP29”.
In a separate document agreed upon during Macron’s visit, countries reinforced the commitment made at COP28 in Dubai to transition away from fossil fuels, and pledged to accelerate efforts towards achieving the net zero target by 2050.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
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