São Paulo 31/3/2022 – Companies usually do not attach as much importance to the growing challenges generated by climate change.

With one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, Brazil is at the center of the global discussion on environmental preservation and sustainable development.

A survey conducted in 2021 by the FSB Institute concluded that 79% of Brazilian companies consider social and environmental issues relevant and include them in business strategies. "However, the percentage dropped to 31% when these issues became goals and also to only 15.5% when the subject is the connection of these goals to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," emphasizes Vininha F. Carvalho, editor of Ecotour News Magazine (www.revistaecotour.news).

Companies typically don't give as much importance to the growing challenges posed by climate change.

Worldwide, weather events caused an estimated $2.5 trillion in damage between 2011 and 2020, 50 percent more than in the previous decade. These events affect organizations in different ways, for example, with disruption of operations, failures in utilities, supply chain failures, asset damage, and inventory loss, among others.

Given this critical context, Braulio Dias, professor at unb's Department of Ecology and former executive secretary of the UN convention on biodiversity, said it is necessary to change the policies of economic incentives, subsidies and tax exemptions that are not aligned with sustainability. "We have to expand the rural land tax, which is very low, expand and monitor the application of ecological ICMS in the states and create a law to encourage the environment, as occurs in other countries such as the USA, Argentina and Peru. The financial system should expand esg requirements in loans and investments."

Brazilian researchers published a scientific paper in the journal Peerj reporting the discovery of seven new species of tiny frogs endemic to the Atlantic Forest and inhabiting the mountains of the Serra do Mar, between Paraná and Santa Catarina. According to the report, the animals are highly sensitive to climate change and are already considered endangered.

"The study revealing that the local extinction of biodiversity motivated by climate change is important to reevaluate conservation policies in Brazil, considering areas that have been ignored so far as hills and mountains that form localized ecosystems containing endemic animal and plant species and restricted distribution," says Vininha F. Carvalho.

The National Development System (SNF), composed of development banks, development agencies and cooperatives, play a key role in financing biodiversity. "We studied 101 mechanisms that have the potential to be applied in the bioeconomy that already exist. Most of these mechanisms are financed through development banks and of these 53 already operate with bioeconomics. Private credit is still very small and restricted", said the coordinator of the Forest Pilot Project + Amazonia United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Susan Seehusen.

"Climate change is not just consequences that we will leave only for future generations. The distance from the goal reflects that a lot of effort sums up still needs to be added. Thinking about adaptation actions to face the changes that already occur are essential, as well as efficient policies capable of curbing global warming to ensure the survival of all species on the planet", concludes Vininha F. Carvalho.

Source: Comunique-se Portal