Bank floats $10 bln Brazilian bond plan to halt Amazon deforestation
Strategists at a UK bank have proposed the idea of a super-sized $10 billion Brazilian government bond that would be specifically designed to help halt the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
Stopping deforestation of the Amazon, which absorbs vast amounts of planet-warming greenhouse gas, is part of Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s sweeping plan to reclaim leadership on climate change measures.
He has recently asked the United States, Britain, France, Switzerland and Canada to join an international Amazon protection fund set up during his first 2003-10 administration and has made a firm commitment to zero deforestation by 2030.
To help stick to that pledge, strategists at NatWest have proposed what would be the world’s biggest ever ‘sustainability-linked bond’ – a special type of government debt that would have an explicit promise to protect the rainforest.
By Marc Jones via Reuters