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Brazil to Lend Farmers $1.1 Billion to Reduce Carbon Emissions
2010-08-18 18:36:36.813 GMT
By Stephan Nielsen
Aug. 18 (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) -- Brazil plans to
provide farmers a total of 2 billion reais ($1.1 billion) in
loans to trim their carbon emissions.
The financing will have a fixed annual rate of 5.5 percent
and a cap of 1 million reais per farmer for each harvest,
according to a Central Bank resolution issued yesterday and
published today in the country's official gazette.
The loans will be available to those who take steps to
improve degraded pastures used for grazing livestock, increase
the efficiency of their farming practices and plant new forests,
according to the resolution. Money will be disbursed starting in
early September, the Agriculture Ministry said.
Half of the total loan amount will be from Banco Nacional
de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social, the national development
bank known as Bndes, and the rest from the state-controlled
Banco do Brasil SA, the ministry said on its website yesterday.
The program was approved by the National Monetary Council
yesterday. The loans will be available to farmers until June 30,
according to the Central Bank resolution.
The nation's Treasury still must issue a regulation setting
out how the government will cover the difference between the
program's annual interest rate and the higher rates both banks
charge, Laila Muniz, an Agriculture Ministry spokeswoman, said
in a telephone interview.
Wagner Rossi, the agriculture minister, originally
announced the loan plans in June during the introduction of his
Low Carbon Agricultural Program, the ministry said.
For Related News and Information:
Brazil and climate change: TNI BRAZIL CLIMATE <GO>
Renewable-energy special report: GREEN <GO>
Top energy stories: TOP NRG <GO>
--Editors: John Lear
To contact the reporter for this story:
Stephan Nielsen in Sao Paulo at +55 11 3017 4932 or
snielsen8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ethan Zindler at +1-202-654-1276 or ezindler@bloomberg.net
