“We are defeating the deniers in this COP and we are offering a lot, promoting many initiatives,” said the President of the National Bank for Social Development, Aloisio Mercadante, live from the COP30, in a phone interview with the blog, after listing the environmentally focused measures and contracts that the Bank presented in these three days of the Conference.
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One of the initiatives announced was the preparation of a permanent plan to prevent climate-related disasters and rebuild affected areas. To this end, R$100 million will be mobilized to conduct studies. The goal, according to Mercadante, is that the country no longer needs to improvise after every natural disaster.
We should study this and develop a permanent plan, so that we do not have to improvise in every situation. Natural disasters will become increasingly severe and frequent, and Brazil must prepare. We want to deepen this study, find out what are the critical areas, what are the measures, how we will adapt and rebuild and also study contingencies and emergencies.
The plan will include an initial contribution of R$100 million – R$30 million from BNDES, R$20 million from Finep and R$50 million in negotiation with other partners – to finance studies and structure permanent prevention, response and reconstruction actions. This initiative is an extension of the Protocol of Intent signed with the Navy and Simadine.
The idea is to create a specific board to put Brazil at the forefront of climate adaptation policies, Mercadante added.
– We want to train technicians and create a stable structure, which has the ability to work and rebuild. This has not yet entered Brazilian history, but it will be so from now on.
Mercadante recalls that in the Rio Grande do Sul tragedy, the state government appointed the bank to develop an adaptation and reconstruction plan, after agreeing on a specific temporary measure, the amount of resources and criteria for access to credit.
Another announcement was that BNDES concluded the mobilization of R$7 billion for the forest sector by announcing five new credit operations from the Forest Climate Fund, aimed at restoring forests and agroforestry systems. Together, the initiatives total more than R$900 million in funding and cover actions in the Amazon, Cerrado and Atlantic forest biomes. The fund is managed by a management committee linked to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA), with BNDES as operator.
According to the bank’s president, Aloisio Mercadante, the main effort is focused on transforming the arc of deforestation in the Amazon region into an arc of restoration. Total mobilization exceeds R$2 billion.
Planting trees is the most efficient, cheapest, and only scalable way to sequester carbon at scale. We are sequestering 54 million tons of carbon equivalent. These seven billion are linked to contracts with five large consortia of very important companies in Brazil. The private sector is entering this market strongly. I would say the following: a company that invests in the green economy cannot have its balance sheet in the red. This is a new business model that is developing rapidly and is sustainable – said the President of BNDES in an interview with the blog.
According to Mercadante, only local species are used, which opens up a wide range of possibilities for use, management and environmental responsibilities.
We will generate 72,000 job opportunities, from seed collection to nurseries, agriculture, management and maintenance. It is the forest economy that develops in these biomes, especially in the Amazon.
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