Researchers from Fundação Getulio Vargas took part in an intense afternoon of debates on November 20 at the Insurance House during COP30 in Belém. The program highlighted the strategic role of agricultural insurance in the face of the global climate emergency and brought reflections on innovation and resilience in the field.
The opening session was led by Roberto Rodrigues, FGV emeritus professor and special envoy for Agriculture. He emphasized that this conference marks a turning point for Brazilian agribusiness. According to Rodrigues, previous COP editions treated agriculture as a secondary issue, without addressing topics such as a just energy transition in the agroenergy sector.
“COP30 allowed Brazil to show the world that tropical agriculture can play a leading role in solving four central challenges: food insecurity, a just energy transition, social inequality, and climate change. These four issues can be addressed by tropical agriculture,” he stated, highlighting the strategic opportunity for the country.
Next came the panel “Insurance as a tool to protect agricultural production in the context of climate transition: Brazil’s challenges and international best practices,” which brought together representatives from industry associations and companies.
Pedro Loyola, coordinator of the Rural Insurance Observatory at the Agribusiness Studies Center (FGV Agro), presented an analysis on the low penetration of rural insurance in regions outside Brazil’s Center-South and pointed out ways to expand coverage.
He explained that although parametric insurance is often cited as a solution, its application in Brazil requires adjustments:
“There is no silver bullet. Parametric insurance works well in countries like Mexico and Colombia for small farmers, with government or cooperative support. In Brazil, we have something similar with the Crop Guarantee Fund, which serves up to one million families,” he noted.
Loyola advocated for developing new models and better understanding producers’ needs, especially given the growing frequency of extreme weather events in states such as Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, Paraná, and Bahia.
Closing the program, the panel “Technology and innovation in the field for climate resilience” discussed how to bring startups, large corporations, and small farmers together around a common agenda. Guilherme Bastos, FGV Agro coordinator and moderator of the debate, stressed the importance of private sector involvement to sustain research and increase resources for climate adaptation.
During the discussion, he reminded participants that initiatives such as the Agricultural Climate Risk Zoning (ZARC) currently rely on agreements with Brazil’s Central Bank through ProAgro. “We need to connect startups, small farmers, and major agribusiness corporations around a shared climate resilience agenda, focused on open innovation and measurable impact,” he said.
FGV’s participation at the Insurance House reinforces the importance of dialogue between academia, the private sector, and government to tackle the challenges posed by climate transition and ensure the sustainability of agricultural production in Brazil.
You can watch the full debates through this link.
Comprehensive coverage of Fundação Getulio Vargas’s participation in COP30, including schedules, exclusive content, and researchers’ contributions to global climate action, is available on the FGV Climate Agenda Platform. The opinions expressed in this publication are solely those of the contributing researchers and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Fundação Getulio Vargas.