Today, we cover the Brazilian Central Bank’s push for sustainability. Brazil’s plan to hold safe elections amid the pandemic. And a hiccup in a front-running potential vaccine trial.
Brazil’s Central Bank wants to go green
The Brazilian Central Bank announced on Tuesday a new ambitious sustainability agenda, which will force financial institutions to quantify risks and opportunities associated with climate change. Their reports will have to follow the model set by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), a market-driven initiative set up to develop recommendations for climate-related financial risk disclosures in mainstream filings.
- The bank also plans on creating a credit line based on ESG standards (environmental, social, and governance).
Why it matters. If fully implemented, the Central Bank’s “green agenda” would make sustainability issues a key pillar of the Brazilian financial system.
Mapping risks. As our August 11 Daily Briefing showed, Latin American banks still fail to evaluate and quantify the financial impact climate change can have on their business. Banks have a particular blind spot when it comes to quantifying their clients’ financial exposure to climate hazards. Still, Brazilian institutions such as Itaú Unibanco and Santander were singled out in a recent UN report as...