New proposals for laws in Brazil: "National ESG Seal" and "Green Investment Seal"

Brazil. Yesterday we participated in the webinar “C-ESG: Selo Nacional ASG” presented by Márcio Pereira, partner of BMA Advogados and of the ESG Commission of Abrasca, live that we promoted last week .

PL 4363/2021 (Senate) aims to attest to the commitment to sustainable practices aimed at social well-being and guided by ethics and integrity. Projects that integrate social, environmental and governance factors. By creating the “ESG” label, politicians hope to mitigate the risk of greenwashing. They also propose to benefit “good companies” with things like “fast-track” in bureaucratic matters, public tenders and funding.

There is also PL 735/2022 (Chamber of Deputies) that creates the “Green Investment Seal” to encourage sustainable practices within the Brazilian financial and capital markets.

According to ANBIMA, “… there is a long way to go and the large number of institutions… challenges and difficulties… The main one is the absence of a regulation or a guide to be followed when starting the sustainability journey, especially in a market in which the ESG concept is still in the process of being absorbed. International references do not help either, as they do not match the Brazilian reality, which must prioritize social aspects. At the same time, there are a series of rules, metrics and rankings that often confuse rather than help.” Click here for our February 2022 post to get to the report PORTRAIT OF SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CAPITAL MARKET, source of the above quote. And much more.

Throughout the webinar, several questions: what metrics and ratings would be considered; which body would give this “ESG Brasil super seal”; would having the seal be a sufficient and fair way to differentiate good companies? Among others.

Well, as already indicated, these are still two propose bills, both still awaiting the opinion of the Environment and Sustainable Development Commission.

Click on the image below to see the slides presented by Márcio Pereira.

20220903 C-ESG - Selo Nacional ASG

.pdf

Download PDF • 438KB

And here for each of the proposed bills discussed:

PL 4363/2021 (Senate)

PL 735/2022 (Chamber of Deputies)