Sustainability for Finance: Situating Green Bonds in the Assetization of Brazilian Agriculture

Abstract

Green bonds are fixed-income debt instruments designed to finance environmentally sustainable activities, products, and assets, such as forest recovery, energy efficiency projects or conservation of water resources. This article analyses the green bond market related to Brazilian agribusiness, following statements of the main promoters of this segment highlighting the country as one with great potential to be ‘unlocked’ for green finance in the agricultural arena. In this vein, the article explores how the very possibility of issuing agribusiness-related green bonds in Brazil and its alleged potential are embedded in a longer trajectory of assetization of the country's agriculture, as well as in a recent coming together of agricultural financing and the capital market.