BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil is set to issue around $2 billion in its first sustainable sovereign bonds in September, a senior Finance Ministry official said on Thursday.
“In the upcoming month, the world will be closely observing and acquiring our sustainable bonds,” Dario Durigan, the ministry’s executive secretary, said during a meeting of the committee of the country’s Climate Fund.
He said green and social projects will back the bonds.
“The expectation that we have in the Nation Treasury is that we issue something around $2 billion. It is a very relevant amount, it will be able to serve as a financing base for the ecological transition plan.”
Durigan said that during a meeting later on Thursday of the National Monetary Council (CMN) – Brazil’s top economic body comprising the finance minister, planning minister and central bank governor – the government will greenlight the issuance of the country’s first sustainable sovereign bonds and will define a new framework that will govern Climate Fund operations.
In an interview with Reuters last week, Rafael Dubeux, who is coordinating efforts in the Finance Ministry’s “ecological transformation” plan, disclosed that the initial allocation of Brazil’s inaugural sustainable sovereign bonds will primarily benefit the Climate Fund under the oversight of the state development bank BNDES, aiming to finance actions to reduce emissions effectively.
The bonds are part of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s efforts to improve Brazil’s record on the environment in a broad green plan that includes the establishment of a regulated carbon credit market.
Durigan said that he held a meeting with John Graham, CEO of Canada Pension Plan Investment (CPP Investments), on Wednesday to explain Brazil’s green plan and that Graham said he was determined to increase the percentage of CPP’s investment in Brazil.
CPP Investments did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by Susan Fenton)
