For the last few months, the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS) has been driving the agenda for sustainable finances in Brazil, with special attention to carbon pricing. We consider that building this mechanism is crucial for our country to fulfill the objectives established on the Paris Agreement and on the Sustainable Development Goals. By adopting pricing, our country will be closer to the leadership in the transition towards a low-carbon economy.

The Council has articulated, together with the Climate Corporate Initiative (IEC) and supported by the Carbon Pricing Leadership (CPLP) – a global initiative of the World Bank, the open letter called The Private Sector Supports Carbon Pricing in Brazil, so far signed by about 25 leaders of active businesses and institutions in this country, but with great potential for more signatures. In this document, the leaders make themselves available to the government so, together, they can plan “to establish a carbon pricing mechanism suitable to the economy’s characteristics and to our country’s profile of greenhouse gases emissions (GGE), incentivizing investments, guaranteeing the competitiveness of companies and driving low-carbon tech innovation in Brazil”.

The letter was approved by the leaders at a dinner organized by Schneider Electric on September 12^th, days before the seminar “The role of business in the new economy”, which celebrated CEBDS’s 20^th anniversary. The document was presented to Fabio Kanczuk, secretary of economic policies for the Ministry of Finance, and to the president of the Central Bank, Ilan Goldfjan, in a meeting held in Brasília on October 3^rd. The meeting – covered by O Globo newspaper (in Portuguese)– was also attended by Latin America regional manager of CPLC/World Bank, Alexandre Kossoy.

Both the secretary and the president of the Central Bank requested us to advance on this agenda and present, in a later meeting, a model that can represent the first step in formalizing the Brazilian commitment to this topic. Besides making the government hear the claims from the business sector, the document is supported by the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, who made available the means of communication present at COP23 – a conference that is recognized as the main global discussion forum on climate change besides being an important piece in the process of multilateral negotiation responsible for establishing the bases for and implementing the Paris Agreement. The Conference will be held between November 6^th and 17^th in Bonn, Germany, and we will be there. As we did in previous years, we will provide a hotsite to keep everyone posted of what is happening there.

Since COP4, in 1998, CEBDS has been engaging Brazilian companies to take part in the Conference, carrying Brazilian businesses’ messages and desires to an even more global realm. And this year, it won’t be different. We have already started registering companies interested in the event, and we will soon present our schedule at COP23.

We will soon communicate the date of the next Council of Leaders meeting. Former president of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso has cleared some of his schedule to see us, and we will make all efforts so these two events happen together. We will keep you all informed.

We are living a moment that requires us to be bold and innovative in order to leverage the sustainability agenda in Brazil. Now, more than ever, it is time to take action. We count on you.

Best regards,

Marina Grossi
President of CEBDS