Green bonds are financial instruments similar to fixed-income securities, with the specificity of being issued to finance environmentally sustainable activities, products and assets, such as forest recovery, energy efficiency projects, storage of greenhouse gas emissions, conservation of water resources, etc. In her presentation, Vanessa Perin will discuss the state of the agribusiness green bond market in Brazil, as well as its connection to the recent coming together of agricultural financing and the capital market in the country. The talk will explore how the very possibility of issuing green bonds related to Brazilian agribusiness is embedded in a longer trajectory of financialization of its agriculture, and how this has been shaping the notion of sustainability mobilized by these financial instruments. 

Vanessa Perin holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology at the Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil. Her research addresses technical and financial mechanisms that have been enabling the expansion of agribusiness ventures in Brazil, particularly in the soybean supply chain.