Mauricio Moura Costa is the Co-Founder BVRio, the 2018 proponent for the Responsible Commodities Facility (RCF) instrument.
1. Tell us about your organization’s climate finance goals and achievements.
BVRio is a not-for-profit organisation that adapts its experience as a pioneer in carbon markets to develop innovative new mechanisms to bridge environmental objectives and sources of finance. Our unique approach is to design new models and structural conditions, implement them to demonstrate proof-of-concept, and then bring them to scale through spin-offs, partnerships, or promoting their adoption by other actors in the market.
For example, with support from The Lab, in 2018, we created the Responsible Commodities Facility (RCF), a programme of financial incentives for soy production on existing deforested and degraded land, discouraging the further expansion of agricultural land in the Brazilian Cerrado. Now managed by BVRio spin-off, Sustainable Investment Management (SIM), in 2022, the first programme commenced with an $11m pilot investment from three major UK retailers.
2. In your view, what should climate finance actors be paying more attention to?
It’s important that climate finance actors understand both the potential and the limitations of climate finance to help fund and scale up activities with positive climate impact. Climate finance is not a panacea but one more tool in the box to be combined with other tools and approaches.
3. What are the most significant barriers to climate finance in the private sector?
The current rules and regulations of the carbon sector may restrict its use in some sectors. For this reason, climate finance must be complemented by other sorts of finance and appropriate policies and regulations, for instance, in sustainable agriculture.
4. What does your organization gain from the Lab network?
The Lab network has exposed us to a large number of stakeholders with interest in our sector, helping us to foster collaborations and drive transformative and innovative solutions forward.
5. What does your organization bring to the Lab network?
We have experience with multi-disciplinary approaches to supporting the green economy, including creating market mechanisms to increase economic efficiency and address market failures, developing tools and initiatives to support the use of market-based approaches and create liquidity to the mechanisms created, and contributing to public policy and promoting legal and regulatory frameworks that are efficient and able to generate environmental positive impacts.
We also provide a solid example of a project that was successful in going through the process of design, development, implementation, and scaling-up, as well as all the experience of barriers and challenges associated with any initiative.
The Lab network has exposed us to a large number of stakeholders with interest in our sector, helping us to foster collaborations and drive transformative and innovative solutions forward.
6. Other than the Lab, what are other climate finance initiatives is your organization engaged in?
Given our background, we remain very involved in carbon and climate finance, engaging with businesses and projects across various sectors to:
- Reduce the emissions of GHGs, help offset carbon footprints and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.
- Promote farming practices and methods that are profitable, environmentally sound, and good for communities (such as zero deforestation and recycling of crop waste and livestock).
- Provide finance to support sustainable forestry practices and forest conservation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity.
- Promote the use of proper and sustainable solid waste management solutions, including plastics recycling.
7. How can others in the Lab network learn about your work and cooperate with you?
Get in touch directly by email via info@bvrio.org, visit our website, sign up for our newsletters, and follow us on LinkedIn.
