Historical series Itaú BBA joins IFACC
The bank’s ESG Agro products are now part of its commitment to promote sustainable practices that contribute to reducing deforestation. The international initiative complements Itaú BBA’s climate responsibility agenda.
São Paulo, September 3, 2024 – Itaú BBA announces its commitment to IFACC (Financial Innovation for the Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco), an initiative launched in 2021 by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) of the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The initiative’s aim is to expand loans and investments aimed at sustainable cattle and soy production, agroforestry systems and sustainable management of non-timber forest products in the Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco biomes.
“As a signatory, we are committed to leveraging and pursuing IFACC’s collective objectives, which are aligned with our ESG agenda and our purpose of strategically supporting, with knowledge, experience and financing capacity, our clients’ transition to low-carbon agriculture,” says Pedro Fernandes, Agribusiness Director at Itaú BBA.
Itaú BBA has made a commitment that its agribusiness ESG operations will be aligned with the IFACC guidelines. Since the creation of the ESG product area for agribusiness in 2021, the bank has already made five product modalities available to encourage the adoption of best practices in agricultural activity and these have a dedicated structure that defines the socio-environmental criteria required for granting credit.
“We are very excited to announce that Itaú BBA is the newest member of the IFACC initiative. The collaboration with Itaú BBA will significantly strengthen our efforts to expand financing for the transition to more sustainable agriculture in Brazil. We are confident that together we will generate a lasting positive impact,” says Greg Fishbein, Agriculture Finance Director – TNC.
Among IFACC’s collective targets are the disbursement of at least US$1 billion by 2025 and US$10 billion by 2030 for financing and investing in business models that promote the expansion of agricultural production without the need for deforestation or additional land conversion.
Actively supporting its clients, Itaú Unibanco is also a signatory of the Net Zero Bank Alliance (NZBA), a global agreement led by the United Nations (UN) whose aim is to mobilize the resources needed to build a global economy with net zero greenhouse gas emissions, in line with the Paris Agreement.