Brazil plans to sell green bonds this year
Brazil plans to launch its first-ever green bond in 2023 as the country's new government tries to use its green agenda to attract investment. The announcement was made by the country's finance minister Fernando Haddad.
Rogerio Ceron, secretary of the National Treasury, speaking at a press conference, said the dates and conditions of the sale would be determined later this year.
"The Treasury is indeed preparing to float these bonds in 2023," Ceron said.
He also added that the bonds should be linked to green projects, citing sustainable agriculture and the energy transition as examples.
Luis Felipe Vital, Head of Public Debt Operations at the Brazil National Treasury, previously said that Brazil was looking forward to issuing bonds related to the environment.
In early 2021, under the government of then-current President Jair Bolsonaro, the Treasury said it would set the stage for issuing ESG sovereign bonds, meaning bonds based on environmental, social and governance criteria.
Most governments sell such debt in a green bond format, with the proceeds used for environmental projects.
President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to give a boost to the environmental agenda as the new leader aims to adopt the transition to a green economy as a mainstream government development policy.
Even before taking office earlier this year, Lula promised an ambitious environmental reform, planning to give new protected status to half a million square kilometres (193,000 square miles) of the Amazon rainforest, fight deforestation, subsidize sustainable agriculture and reform Brazil's tax code to support the transition to a green economy, as reported by Reuters.
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