| By Daniel Carvalho and Dayanne Sousa Brazil’s
main plan to protect the Amazon rainforest, the centerpiece of its
COP30 climate agenda, is moving ahead — with Norway playing a key role
in its launch, though initial funding falls well short of expectations. The Tropical Forest Forever Facility,
or TFFF, designed to support the conservation of endangered forests
worldwide, will receive around $5 billion in pledged contributions — far
short of its $25 billion target. Norway and France have agreed to join
Brazil in investing in the fund, while Germany will announce its
contribution on Friday, Brazilian ministers said on Thursday. “It
is an unprecedented initiative,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva said earlier at the launch of the fund in the Amazonian city of
Belém. “Forests are worth far more standing than felled.” The new fund could
play a pivotal role in forest protection as the current climate policies
and green finance remain insufficient to address the magnitude of the
global challenge, said Lula, who is presiding over this year’s United
Nations climate summit. The
TFFF is Brazil’s signature initiative at COP30, with initial ambitions
for pledges of $25 billion that could be leveraged to create a $125
billion vehicle aimed at preserving tropical forests. Finance
Minister Fernando Haddad said at the Bloomberg Green at COP30 conference
in São Paulo on Tuesday that he believed the fund may raise $10 billion
by next year. The
funds will be placed in a diversified portfolio designed both to repay
investors and to reward countries for conserving their forests. Under
the plan, nations will receive a fee for every hectare of forest
conserved. Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of
Congo are among the countries that would benefit most. “We
achieved over 50% of what we had imagined for the end of next year, and
we will keep working,” said Haddad in Belém. “The initial investment
that’s being done is auspicious. You can anticipate that, after this
first investment that we will have a very good start.” Fernando Haddad Photographer: Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg Norway pledged about
$3 billion in loans over 10 years, which will be disbursed through 2035
and must be repaid by 2075, according to a government statement on
Thursday. The
funding comes with conditions: the TFFF needs to secure at least 100
billion Norwegian kroner ($9.8 billion) from other donors by 2026;
Norway won’t provide more than 20% of the total financing; and the
funding model must be sustainable and maintain an acceptable level of
risk. Over 50
countries have endorsed the declaration of support for the launch of the
fund. Other countries that haven’t announced investments are still
engaged in conversations, including China, the Netherlands and the
United Arab Emirates, according to Haddad. Brazil’s
efforts to convince developed countries to invest in the fund were made
difficult at a moment when potential investors face budget constraints. The absence of an announcement of investment from the UK, for example, was noticeable in a time when the country is trying to tackle its surging debt burden. The
fund uses a blended finance model, seeking to invest its assets to
generate a higher return than what it owes investors, and then using the
difference to fund rainforest preservation. That
“spread is not a money faucet, but a risk premium,” BloombergNEF
analysts wrote in a factbook about biodiversity finance published
Thursday. “Poor performance of emerging market assets, which face a
diverse host of economic and political risks, will not only nullify
forest payments, but also see development finance absorb private
investor losses.” | 
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