Sep 9, 2020

 The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) received from the Ministry of the Environment, on Wednesday, the 9th, a new contribution of R$ 232 million to the Climate Fund. With this new contribution, R$ 582 million were deposited this year, which is the largest annual investment ever made to the fund. Last month, the Bank had already received R$ 350 million for the same purposes. 

The new contribution was signed by Minister Ricardo Salles and BNDES President Gustavo Montezano at the Ministry's headquarters in Brasília. The resources will be directed primarily to investments in sanitation and solid waste recovery. Thus, the intended objective with the new contribution is to promote improvement in the quality of life of the urban population, focusing on urbanization, the environment and sanitary conditions.

The resources are earmarked to support the implementation of businesses and acquisition of machinery and equipment, as well as technological development related to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change and its effects. Each project can receive a maximum of R$ 30 million every 12 months, through financing granted by BNDES in the Finame or Finem models. 

The universalization of sanitation in Brazil is a priority for BNDES. Currently 100 million people do not have sewage collection in their homes and 35 million do not even have treated water. At the moment, the Bank is planning eight state and municipal concession projects that will serve 25 million Brazilians and bring more than R$ 55 billion in investments. 

As for the treatment of solid waste, BNDES plays an important role in the financing of selective or differentiated waste collection, as well as automated or semiautomated sorting systems, treatment of organic residue (except for those that might be used in power generation), and remediation of areas previously used for inadequate disposal (in addition to economic application of such disposed waste).  

Ricardo Salles, the Minister of the Environment, stressed: “Regarding the Zero Dump program, this transfer is an important action of the Federal Government to mitigate climate change, since waste dumps are major emitters of greenhouse gases, in addition to contaminating soil, water and causing problems to the health of Brazilians.” 

“Starting from the end of September, we will announce calls for companies that want to invest in the treatment of solid waste in Brazilian cities to register with the Bank, so we can make use of this resource,” said BNDES President Gustavo Montezano.

The Climate Fund Program is intended to apply the portion of reimbursable resources from the National Climate Change Fund. The Fund has already allocated R$ 790 million to projects that help preserve the environment, through investments that have helped reduce carbon emissions in a volume equivalent to the planting  of 10 million trees. As an example, the fund has already allocated resources to support the development of the Rio de Janeiro VLT, the Power Generation at the Caeiros Landfill in São Paulo, and the implementation of solar panels for more than 800 individuals and micro businesses.

In the Climate Fund page, in BNDES’s website, it is possible to check all the information and operations supported with the provided resources.