Green Daily

Agriculture is Brazil’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. With climate talks set to get underway in the country next month, the industry is making the pitch that it’s a climate leader that can help cut planet-warming pollution.

Today’s newsletter looks at that paradox and the risk that the sector’s jump into the spotlight could undermine climate negotiations.

Plus, we cover how investment in climate tech is recovering after years of decline, while the latest UN report showed CO2 emissions rose by a record amount last year. We also talk to Colossal Biosciences, the company that aims to bring back long-extinct animals like woolly mammoths, about their latest endeavor — producing a third northern white rhino.

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Walking a tightrope

By Dayanne Sousa and Daniel Carvalho

Brazil’s powerful agriculture industry plans to show off a green image at the upcoming COP30 summit — despite its massive climate footprint.

The highest-emitting sector of the economy, it is also the main driver of deforestation. But at the United Nations-sponsored summit, its message will be that Brazil is a leader in innovative, sustainable agriculture.

The farm lobby and its government backers are honing this message in the face of international pressure that threatens the country’s key exports. The EU has passed a law requiring proof that imported Brazilian crops weren’t grown on deforested land (the law hasn’t yet been implemented). And the US recently launched a probe into Brazil’s trade practices, citing deforestation as a concern.

A commodities giant, Brazil supplies beef, soybeans, sugar and coffee to markets from China to Europe. The agriculture supply chain accounts for about a quarter of the country’s GDP. That economic heft means the industry shapes the country’s political debate more than any other — even more than oil and gas. Some 60% of Brazil’s lawmakers are members of the congressional agriculture caucus.

Next month, the world’s largest climate event will welcome thousands of high-level visitors to the Amazonian city of Belém — and open the industry to more scrutiny.

“It could be something very negative for us,” said Pedro Lupion, head of the agriculture caucus.

The summit could become a “trap” for agribusiness if it doesn’t highlight “good examples and good practices,” Brazil’s Secretary of Agricultural Policy Guilherme Campos said in September.

Ranchers herd cattle on a farm in Xinguara, Para state, Brazil. Photographer: Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg

Brazilian government bodies that support the sector are working to do that. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and Embrapa, a government-backed agriculture research group, plan an Agrizone Pavilion that will highlight novel techniques for cultivating everything from açai to beef, and that will host hundreds of events over the two weeks of the conference, according to the ministry.

“COP30 will be an opportunity for Brazil to showcase to the world the sustainable practices of its agricultural sector,” the ministry said in a statement, “combining the production of food, fiber and energy with environmental responsibility.”

JBS NV, the world’s largest meat supplier, plans to present new research at COP30 showing that Brazil’s cattle ranching plays a role in capturing greenhouse gases. The company — which has come under particular criticism for its environmental record — has been promoting the sustainability efforts of one of its suppliers, Grupo Roncador, a farm known for practices that can help soil retain carbon dioxide, such as no-till farming, integrating crops and livestock and using animal waste as fertilizer.

Claudio Angelo, the international policy coordinator at Climate Observatory, a coalition of climate NGOs, says that Brazilian farming has indeed made strides, though these have to be viewed in context.

“Brazil has started using a lot of agricultural technology to recover degraded pasture, better manage grazing land and integrate pasture with crops, and pasture with crops and forests,” Angelo said, and the combination allows it to sequester carbon in soil on a limited scale.

But to call the sector highly sustainable based on that would be “intellectual dishonesty,” he said. “Agribusiness is the main beneficiary of deforestation, and agribusiness also has enormous direct emissions from cattle herds.”

Read the full story on Bloomberg.com and subscribe to Green Daily for more stories on Brazil ahead of COP30.

Paradise lost

1.38 million

The number of hectares of rainforest lost across the states of Amazonas, Acre and Rondônia since 2019. That’s an area roughly the size of Connecticut.

Multiple warning signs

“We talk a lot about the climate emergency, but there is a social emergency in the Amazon territory.”

Tereza Campello

Director of the socio-environmental division, Brazil’s national development bank

Deforestation is driven in part by poverty and few job prospects.

While spending on programs to support sustainable micro-economies has soared, critics say the scale of its efforts fall short of what’s needed.

Share your story

A prototype of an AI chip Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

A recent MIT study made waves with a striking conclusion: 95% of corporate AI pilot projects fail to deliver a return on investment. Bloomberg journalists are looking to connect to employees that have found practical and creative ways to leverage AI technology into real business value. If that is you, share your experience with us in a brief survey.

Clean tech’s big rebound

By Coco Liu

Global investment in green technology for the first three quarters of the year has already surpassed all of 2024. The fortunes of the sector have been in decline for three years, but explosive energy demand fueled by data centers has sparked a reversal.

Private and public investors worldwide channeled as much as $56 billion into green businesses ranging from clean energy to storage and electric vehicles during the nine months ending in September, according to a new BloombergNEF report. By contrast, the climate tech industry snagged less than $51 billion in 2024.

The renewed interest is being driven by clean energy and power storage deals, and comes despite the Trump administration’s backpedaling on climate policy. Major deals include Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited, which raised about $5 billion from its Hong Kong initial public offering in May. The country’s electric car maker BYD also raised $5.2 billion in share sales in March, while Spanish renewable energy giant Iberdrola sold $5.9 billion worth of shares in July.

Nuclear energy drew a fifth of all climate venture capital funding, in a large part “driven by the AI hype,” said Musfika Mishi, a BNEF analyst. That includes a $863 million raise by Commonwealth Fusion, which drew funding from Nvidia’s venture arm.

But it remains to be seen whether the uptick will continue into 2026, Mishi added. She expects Trump’s assault on renewable energy projects will weigh on investors’ confidence. BNEF projects VC investment — which makes up a portion of the climate funding the group tracks — to stand at around $25 billion by the end of 2025, compared to last year’s $31.7 billion.

Read the full story on Bloomberg.com. To stay up to date on the latest climate tech funding trends, please subscribe.

More from Green

A northern white rhino fetus produced using invitro fertilization and embryo transfer techniques. Source: Colossal Biosciences Inc.

Colossal Biosciences, the Dallas-based company that aims to bring long extinct animals such as woolly mammoths back to life, is working with researchers from countries including Kenya, Germany, Italy, Japan and the Czech Republic to produce a northern white rhino. The goal is to start bringing back the species from the brink of extinction within four years.

There are just two northern white rhinos left in the world, the females Najin and Fatu, that live at a reserve in Kenya’s Rift Valley region. If that attempt is successful others will follow.

“This is three to four years away,” said Matt James, Colossal’s chief animal officer, in an interview. “It will be easier and cheaper to recover the population today than it would be if we lost the species altogether and then we tried to bring it back from extinction.”

Gene editing, and the aim to bring animals back from extinction, is a new and controversial tool in the battle to protect the planet’s dwindling biodiversity as human activities damage ecosystems and deprive them or the organisms to keep them functioning. Still, some scientists have cautioned that bringing animals back into existence could have unpredictable consequences.

Read the full story on Bloomberg.com

CO2 emissions from human activities and wildfires rose by an unprecedented amount last year, while the land and oceans’ ability to absorb carbon diminished.

Brazil is working with Japan and Italy to win support for a global pledge to quadruple sustainable fuel production by 2035 ahead of the COP30 summit.

The UK should brace for warming of at least 2C by 2050 and as much as 4C by the end of the century, as the world will likely miss the Paris Agreement’s target, the government’s official climate adviser said.

Worth a listen

Greg Jackson Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

The UK used to be a shining example of how to act on climate change. It created one of the world’s first climate laws in 2008, which bound the government to reduce emissions on tight deadlines. That law used to have cross-party support, but that’s no longer the case with politicians trying to make climate a wedge issue. Greg Jackson, chief executive officer of the UK’s largest energy retailer, Octopus Energy, joins Akshat Rathi on the Zero podcast to discuss his plan to bring down bills and keep the public on the green side.

Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday.