Climate finance progress at risk in Latam as Brazil goes to the polls

Bolsonaro win could upend years of improvement, especially in deforestation of Amazon

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Aerial view of the Amazon Rainforest near Manaus in northern Brazil. Photo: Neil Palmer for CIAT/CIFOR.

(Michael Molinski is a senior economist at Trendline Economics. He’s worked for Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo, and previously as a foreign correspondent and editor for Bloomberg News and MarketWatch.)

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Callaway Climate Insights) — Climate finance flows in Latin America doubled in the past four years as innovative capital instruments sought to close the climate change funding gap, despite challenging political hurdles like the hotly contested Brazilian presidential election this coming Sunday.

From green bonds and carbon credits to the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) to concessions of public lands for forest restoration, there has been no shortage of innovative financial mechanisms channeling funds toward climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Latin America is among the regions most exposed to climate, economic, and biodiversity crises, yet it is also central to solving them,” said a report last month in The Nature Conservancy.