The German government announced this Friday, the 7th, that it intends to invest in the Tropical Forests Forever Fund (TFFF), but without announcing a value, which frustrates the expectations of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva government.
Berlin was the president’s last bet to further leverage the fund and sovereign contributions from governments in order to get it up and running. This phase is seen as essential to provide security to potential private sector investors.
German Prime Minister Friedrich Merz, however, stated that the European country’s investment was certain, but highlighted that the definition of the value depends on the coalition’s agreement – which has no date yet to occur.
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Behind the scenes, German interlocutors indicated that they could make a substantive contribution, but not now. The government wants more details about the management of the fund.
How the Estadão showed, the German government had already announced in the Bundestag, the local Parliament, that it would participate in the fund, but without citing values.
“The reason we haven’t mentioned specific amounts yet is simply practical. We need to account for this in the budget, we need to review the framework again and possibly make new proposals on how to implement it. Only then will we get involved, and there is absolutely no disagreement within the coalition about not mentioning a specific amount or deadline today,” Merz said.
“The fact that we are not finalizing the value is not an evasion; after all, two or three countries mentioned abstract values, others did not”, he added.
This will be the second casualty of European countries that, months ago, were surveyed and actively participated in the discussion about the functioning and idealization of the TFFF. The United Kingdom was left out of the list of investors, citing budget constraints.
In total, the TFFF has already reached US$5.5 billion at the start. However, the projected goal was to obtain US$25 billion from governments – without a deadline.
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Days before the summit, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, who was also awaiting a German figure released this Friday, said that if throughout 2026 the fund has US$10 billion it will be a good value.
List of pledged investors:
- Norway – US$3 billion (with conditions that Brazil wants to reverse)
- Brazil – US$ 1 billion
- Indonesia – US$ 1 billion
- France – €500 million (with conditions)
- Portugal – €1 million
