In his conversation with WCF, Rafael Tello, Sustainability President at AMBIPAR, highlights the circular economy as a powerful yet underdeveloped lever for climate action, one that could reduce the emissions needed to meet the Paris Agreement goals by up to 45%. Achieving that potential depends on close collaboration between governments, companies and civil society to build the right models, incentives and regulatory frameworks.

The challenge is clear: we must mobilize USD 1.3 trillion annually by 2035 for developing countries — a climate finance target agreed upon at COP29 — with at least USD 300 billion per year coming from developed nations. It is a massive volume in a global context marked by constrained liquidity, geopolitical tensions, trade barriers, inflation, high interest rates, and increasing capital allocation toward artificial intelligence and defense.