The Arrival of El Niño, Natural Disasters, and the Growing Debate on Climate Finance in Brazil
By Yandra França (CFC-GS/UFPA) El Niño has reached Brazil, reigniting debates on climate finance and the urgency of the climate transition. Natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and heat waves have increasingly become warning signs in everyday Brazilian life. These events make it strikingly clear that the climate crisis is not merely an environmental issue, but also an economic, social, urban, and public health challenge. The severe droughts that affected the Amazon in 2023 had significant impacts on rivers, riverside communities, transportation, fishing, and food security. According to World Weather Attribution, the Amazon Basin experienced an exceptional drought from mid-2023 onward, characterized by low rainfall and persistently high temperatures. The study indicates that, although El Niño influenced the reduction in rainfall across the region, climate change was the main factor intensifying the drought. At the other end of Brazil, in April 2024, the state of Rio Grande do Sul drew nationwide attention. More than 42 mm of rainfall affected the state, impacting over 90% of its territory, displacing thousands of people, interrupting essential services, and exposing weaknesses in drainage systems, flood protection infrastructure, and urban planning. According to the Federal Government, R$2.2 billion was allocated in financial assistance to the population affected by the disaster (GOV, 2025). The increasing frequency of heat waves across Brazil demonstrates that these disasters are not isolated events, nor are they solely influenced by the El Niño phenomenon. The year 2025 was the third hottest ever recorded in the history of the planet (Cemaden, 2026), with seven heat waves and extreme drought affecting several regions (UN, 2026). Climate finance has therefore become a central issue because recent disasters have shown that acting only after a tragedy occurs is insufficient and economically more costly. The 2024–2035 Climate Plan, developed by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, structures Brazil’s climate policy around mitigation, adaptation, and cross-cutting strategies. Climate finance instruments such as the Climate Fund and the Amazon Fund support and finance projects related to these areas. However, mitigation continues to receive greater attention than climate adaptation, disaster prevention, and resilient infrastructure. As the Earth continues to warm, the need for adaptation also increases. At the federal level, the Brazilian government launched AdaptaCidades in 2025, with the purpose of strengthening the role of states and municipalities in the climate adaptation agenda by supporting the development of municipal or regional adaptation plans (GOV, 2025). Likewise, during COP30, hosted in Belém in the heart of the Legal Amazon, the Brazilian government presented the AdaptAÇÃO project. The initiative aims to promote integrated solutions for resilient urban planning by supporting municipal governments, especially those with limited technical capacity, so that climate adaptation can be incorporated into land-use and urban development decisions (COP30, 2025). Municipalities are often the government entities that respond most directly to the population when disasters occur. Nevertheless, only 13% of Brazilian municipalities have published a climate adaptation plan. Source: Technical Note Transparência em adaptação climática em Governos Municipais, ITGP, June 2026. Debates on climate finance are becoming increasingly prominent and comprehensive, placing pressure on governments, markets, and civil society to recognize environmental disruption, climate-related tragedies, and global warming as economic and social problems that directly affect all inhabitants of the planet, rather than as distant concerns or sensationalist newspaper headlines. To continue learning about climate finance, keep reading the CFC-GS blog and follow real data on global climate finance through our tracker. REFERENCES BRASIL. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação. Centro Nacional de Monitoramento e Alertas de Desastres Naturais. Relatório anual do Cemaden aponta 2025 com recordes de calor e seca prolongada. Cemaden, Feb. 27, 2026. Updated: Mar. 26, 2026. Available at: https://www.gov.br/cemaden/pt-br/assuntos/noticias-cemaden/relatorio-anual-do-cemaden-aponta-2025-com-recordes-de-calor-e-seca-prolongada. Accessed: June 24, 2026. BRASIL. Ministério da Integração e do Desenvolvimento Regional. Mais R$ 3,3 bilhões para recuperação do Rio Grande do Sul. Brasília, DF: Ministério da Integração e do Desenvolvimento Regional, Nov. 26, 2025. Updated: Nov. 28, 2025. Available at: https://www.gov.br/mdr/pt-br/noticias/mais-r-203-8-milhoes-para-recuperacao-do-rio-grande-do-sul. Accessed: June 24, 2026. BRASIL. Ministério do Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima. AdaptaCidades. Brasília, DF: Ministério do Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima, [n.d.]. Available at: https://www.gov.br/mma/pt-br/composicao/smc/adaptacidades. Accessed: June 24, 2026. COP30 BRASIL. Brasil apresenta projeto que fortalece adaptação urbana frente às mudanças do clima na COP30. COP30 Brasil, Oct. 30, 2025. Available at: https://cop30.br/pt-br/noticias-da-cop30/brasil-apresenta-projeto-que-fortalece-adaptacao-urbana-frente-as-mudancas-do-clima-na-cop30. Accessed: June 24, 2026. ONU NEWS. Brasil registrou sete ondas de calor e seca extrema em diversas regiões em 2025. ONU News, May 18, 2026. Available at: https://news.un.org/pt/story/2026/05/1853175. Accessed: June 24, 2026. TRANSPARÊNCIA INTERNACIONAL – BRASIL. Adaptação climática nos municípios: apenas 13% têm plano publicado. Transparência Internacional – Brasil, June 2, 2026. Available at: https://transparenciainternacional.org.br/posts/adaptacao-climatica-nos-municipios-apenas-13-tem-plano-publicado/. Accessed: June 24, 2026. WORLD WEATHER ATTRIBUTION. Climate change, El Niño and infrastructure failures behind massive floods in southern Brazil. World Weather Attribution, June 3, 2024. Available at: https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-made-the-floods-in-southern-brazil-twice-as-likely/. Accessed: June 24, 2026.
