Gustavo Luz, executive director of Fundo Vale, spoke on a panel about catalytic capital and blended finance at the second edition of the Nature-based Solutions Investment Summit 

From May 21 to 23, São Paulo hosted Brazil Climate Investment Week, a series of events dedicated to debates on mobilizing private, national and international investment in Brazilian projects focused on solutions to the climate crisis.  

The first event was the Converge Capital Conference, organized by Marina Cançado, founder of Converge Capital and co-founder of ATO. This conference brought together almost 600 people from banks, investment funds, family offices, philanthropic entities, companies and government bodies. Based on the theme of “Investments in the Age of Climate Change,” the event sought to encourage the traditional Brazilian financial markets to support businesses and initiatives aimed at the transition to a low-carbon economy. There were 15 panel discussions on solutions for scaling up the environmental and climate agenda in Brazil. 

The following days saw the second edition of the Nature-based Solutions Investment Summit, aimed at investors and business leaders who are aligned with Brazil’s climate transition plan through nature-based solutions. Gustavo Luz, the executive director of Fundo Vale, took part in a panel on catalytic capital and blended finance, alongside Marcele Paranhos, the director of agricultural finance at The Nature Conservancy; André Carvalhal, head of credit funds and blended finance at BNDES; Andrea Azevedo, director of the JBS Fund for the Amazon; Phillipe Käfer, leader in Brazil of the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance; and Viviane Otsubo Kwon, head of sustainability and innovation at Santander. 

“Catalytic capital is fundamental for financing social and environmental initiatives, as it reduces financial risks for initial investors, making projects more attractive. It also helps accelerate innovation in solutions aimed at tackling climate challenges. Talking about catalytic capital and blended finance at an event of this size is very important, because it gives us the opportunity to encourage the participation of major market players in innovative financing arrangements that combine private, philanthropic and public capital,” said Gustavo Luz.