• Platform aims to initially attract $8 bln through six pilot projects
• Focus on energy, industry and mobility, nature-based solutions
• Platform was developed based on discussions held at the G20

WASHINGTON/BRASILIA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Brazil is working to lure more foreign investment in sustainable development with a new platform, to be launched on Wednesday, highlighting $8 billion in promising private-sector projects and looking to triple that portfolio in a year.

Four officials, who discussed the program anonymously before a launch event on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington, called it a concrete example of Brazil's agenda as this year's G20 chair and host of the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP).

With the new platform, Brazil's government will select projects aligned with its sustainable development priorities and work to leverage foreign capital with the coordination of state development bank BNDES, which may also contribute funding.

Six pilot projects will be included at the launch, ranging from production of sustainable aviation fuel, fertilizers and green hydrogen to reforestation and mining of strategic minerals, according to the sources.

The program builds on efforts by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to position Brazil as a favored destination for green investments. Other initiatives include measures to mitigate currency risks, issue green sovereign bonds and organize a domestic agenda around the "ecological transformation" of Latin America's largest economy.

Foreign direct investment in Brazil declined in 2023, the first year of Lula's current term, but rebounded 14% in the first eight months of this year to $51 billion.

The new program courting foreign investment will initially focus on accelerating initiatives in energy, industry and mobility, along with "nature-based solutions" for climate change such as reforestation, sources said.

"Once a project enters the platform, it receives a certification, a seal of quality and prioritization, which we believe will help mobilize international private capital — our main target — as well as multilateral banks, climate funds," one source said.

"This is what we aim to work on between our G20 presidency and COP30 in Belem."

A second source said that by the time Brazil hosts the UN climate summit next November, projects on the new platform are expected to represent a potential investment of $20 billion via debt and equity.

The BNDES will lead a new secretariat, backed by the UN's Green Climate Fund, that selects projects and helps to match them with financing, sources said.

In designing the new platform, sources said Brazil drew on talks it has hosted with the Group of 20 major global economies regarding reform of multilateral banks and how countries can showcase their priority projects for foreign investment.

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https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-aims-lure-foreign-investment-with-green-development-platform-sources-say-2024-10-22/