A US$125 billion rainforest fund is being hailed as a flagship announcement from the 2025 UN climate summit in Belém, Brazil. The goal is noble: this is essentially a trust fund that will pay countries to keep their tropical forests standing. But its core idea was tried 30 years ago, and the results weren’t great.
Brazilian president Luiz Inàcio Lula da Silva suggests the so-called Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) is innovative because it is “an investment fund, not a donation mechanism”. This, in theory, means investors can benefit too, providing a long-term stability that isn’t affected by political cycles.
Turning to private markets is not in itself all that innovative. But years of efforts to mobilise private finance for climate action have routinely failed to attract sufficient investment.
