Brazilian cities adopt climate budgeting to guide public spending

Several Brazilian cities, including Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Salvador, Fortaleza, Recife, Campinas, and Curitiba, are implementing a climate budget to organize public spending and prioritize environmental investments.

This tool identifies and classifies how much public money goes toward addressing the climate crisis, helping municipal governments integrate environmental goals into fiscal planning and increase transparency in how they spend public funds. The initiative is part of the Mutirão Brasil Program, which launched in 2025 during COP30 in Belém.

The movement is coordinated by the C40 Cities global network and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, with funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Rather than creating a separate budget, the climate budget incorporates environmental criteria into existing public administration decision-making processes. This allows mayors to identify funding gaps and direct resources toward infrastructure such as drainage, sustainable mobility, and disaster prevention.

In São Paulo, the city government included the climate budget in the 2026 Budget Law with an estimated 28.8 billion reais, a figure expected to rise to 33 billion reais in 2027. The city also integrated the tool into its Multi-Year Plan through 2029, which projects over 122 billion reais for climate actions. In Rio de Janeiro, the city government plans to allocate 6 billion reais by 2027 for projects including electric buses and flood prevention.

Salvador is using the tool to manage geographical vulnerabilities and work toward a goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2049. The municipal governments believe that transparent climate budgeting will help them secure national and international financing. By showing clear spending on adaptation and mitigation, these cities can meet the requirements of multilateral organizations and development banks.

The C40 network intends to use the experience of these seven pioneer cities as a reference to expand the methodology to medium and small cities.