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A nature's superpower.
Sounds great, right?
But what does it mean?
In Brazil, achieving superpower status
goes far beyond renewables and green tech.
It starts with fundamentally redesigning
our relationship with nature.
Over half of global GDP depends
on everything nature provides for free.
The air we breathe, the water we drink,
the stability of our climate.
That's why we're bringing nature
to the forefront of policy,
from international diplomacy
to economic planning.
It's easy to understand our reasons.
Brazil hosts the biggest
tropical forest on Earth.
We have one of the widest
and longest rivers on the planet.
We're more biologically diverse
than any other nation,
with more kinds of plants
and animals and microbes and fungi.
Well, you get the point.
I'm an entrepreneur,
and I've seen the path for how Brazil
and other countries
can truly become nature's superpowers.
But before we go there,
we need to overcome big challenges.
And the biggest of them all
is deforestation.
Over the past 40 years,
an area larger than California
has been cleared
to make way for progress in Brazil.
And what makes this problem
more challenging
is that over 90 percent
of deforestation in Brazil is illegal.
Trees cut down today
are connected to illicit economies
like land grabbing,
wildlife trafficking, illegal gold mining,
and dodge agriculture
and ranching practices.
These environmental crimes
are a big business,
generating around 280 billion dollars
a year in illicit profits globally.
And all of this illegal deforestation
has planetary consequences,
taking our carbon forest storing
too close to the point of no return.
So we need to change this up,
because this is destabilizing
our food production
and our water and climate security.
I've spent the last two decades
preventing and reducing crime,
including those below the forest canopy.
My team supports police, prosecutors,
financial crimes experts
to track illegal products
and follow the money
across the Amazon basin.
But here is the truth.
We can't police our way
out of this problem.
We are just too big.
The Amazon alone is larger
than the European Union.
So yes, of course, we need
better policing and prosecution.
But above all,
we need to make standing forests
more valuable than cleared land.
We urgently need a new economic paradigm
that recognizes the value
of everything nature gives us,
like forests, but also water, soil,
minerals and clean air.
This new model should leverage
our natural capital
and create entirely new economies
that work with nature and not against it.
And the good news is
that this isn't wishful thinking.
It's already happening.
And the Green Bridge
Facility that I founded
is at the frontier of this agenda.
So let me share with you a few
of the steps Brazil is taking
to become a nature superpower.
So first, make nature core
to your national identity.
Brazilians are finally embracing
our tropical forests and other ecosystems.
Nature is being mainstreamed
into national,
regional and global commitments and plans.
In 2023, the Brazilian
government announced
an Ecological Transformation Plan
an investment platform.
A centerpiece of this strategy involves
creating a truly nature-based economy.
A point I'll come back to.
At the regional level,
Brazil is working with our eight
Amazonian neighbors
to scale up conservation
and sustainable development.
Brazil is also exporting
nature-positive priorities
to the global policy arenas
like the G20, BRICS
and the UN Nature and Climate conferences.
Second, build an inclusive
and innovative bioeconomy.
New bioeconomies that promote
nature-based supply chains
are sprouting up across Brazil,
from food to cosmetics and textiles.
And what makes Brazil's approach
to bioeconomy powerful
is that it's rooted in Indigenous
and local knowledge.
The country is creating
partnerships with multilateral
and national development banks
to create and speed up
bioeconomy value chains and jobs.
On the ground,
transformation is being led
by impact accelerators like AMAZ
and by a new generation of companies.
One of them is Natura,
a global pioneer in the cosmetics sector.
Natura puts a premium on sustainably
harvesting Amazon ingredients
while empowering traditional populations
who depend on the forest.
They recently partnered with a forest
intelligence company called Biodiverse,
and together they mapped
the largest inventory of forests
ever undertaken in Brazil.
And they did this in record time,
completing in six months a task
they say would normally take 25 years.
With satellites, drones and AI,
they improved identification of products
sustainably increasing the yields
of harvesters who depend on the forest.
They are part of a growing ecosystem
of Brazilian entrepreneurs
and philanthropists
like the Arapyaú Institute
that are connecting harvesters
to responsible buyers,
from restaurant holdings like Grupo Trigo
to bean-to-bar
chocolate makers like Dengo.
Third, create a new economic sector
focused on nature restoration.
To achieve our Paris
Agreement commitments,
Brazil has to get
to zero deforestation by 2030
and restore 12 million
hectares on the way.
It's a kind of natural industrial policy.
Restoring such a big area
could generate around 140 billion dollars
and up to 2.5 million jobs.
These are big numbers.
And to speed this up,
the country has launched
public-private partnerships to protect,
restore and sustainably manage
massive public forest concessions.
Brazilian restoration start-ups
are also scaling up carbon capture
and high integrity credits
like re.green and Belterra
with their ecological
and agroforestry models.
Because, after all,
being a nature's superpower
isn't just about protecting
and restoring nature,
it's also about creating
a new economic sector
in a way that is better for the people,
cheaper and more scalable
than other carbon-capture alternatives.
And finally,
make nature a high-integrity asset class.
Brazil is also pioneering nature
finance innovations to unlock resources.
Carbon credits,
they're just the beginning.
Biodiversity units,
payments for ecosystem services
and sustainability-linked bonds
are also emerging
to jumpstart nature markets.
One compelling idea is Brazil's
Tropical Forest Forever Facility.
The TFFF, as we call it,
features a new 125 billion dollar fund
that will support long-term
forest conservation.
The fund will pay
tropical forest countries
and reward frontline communities
for every hectare of forest
they keep standing or restore.
Becoming a nature's superpower
doesn't happen by chance.
It demands bold leadership,
investment in the bioeconomy,
prioritizing nature restoration
and sustainable financial innovation.
For this to happen,
we must recognize that forests and nature
are worth far more alive than dead.
And if Brazil succeeds in building
these new economic models
that truly value nature,
many other countries can follow.
And as a result, we all win.
Thank you.
(Applause)
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