Engagement collaboration: Water bonds to mitigate environmental risks
Project Overview
Focused on Brazil, the project built foundations to integrate environmental risk in water bonds.
What problem was the project designed to solve?
Our research integrates an environmental risk perspective into analysing the impacts of green bond investments on water resources. While green bonds finance sustainable infrastructure to address water challenges, their real environmental effectiveness and transparency remain underexplored. The UK leads globally in water bonds, and Brazil in Latin America. By connecting UK and Brazilian researchers, we aim to exchange world-class knowledge, engage local stakeholders, and build collaborative networks to advance sustainable finance and develop innovative, scalable research projects for future funding.
What did the project do and who was involved? How were you involved?
These goals will be achieved through a structured approach involving stakeholder via interviews, a workshop, dissemination of findings.
Dr Macarena Beltran, Northumbria University
Dr Ticiane Santos Federal Rural University of the Amazônia (UFRA), Brazil
Dr Rayla Dias, Federal Fluminense University (UFF), Brazil
Dr Isabel Torres, University of Santiago, Chile
Dr Jin Suk Park, Coventry University
Dr Jessica Robins, Coventry University
Professor Benny Tjahjono, Coventry University
Professor Yaniv Hanoch, Coventry University
What was the outcome?
The project, completed in September, focused on building pathways for future outcomes rather than delivering immediate impact. It established strong foundations for collaboration between UK and Brazilian researchers in an area where Global South perspectives are underrepresented — the integration of environmental risk into green bond analysis. Through interviews and a collaborative workshop, it created new research connections and dialogue among academics, policymakers, and practitioners in Brazil’s water and finance sectors. While the full impact will develop through follow-on activities, the project has strengthened partnerships, enhanced local capacity, and set the groundwork for inclusive and context-sensitive research on sustainable finance.
What challenges did you address and how were they addressed?
The main challenge was aligning timelines and engagement across partners in two countries with different academic calendars. To address this, the team adopted a flexible coordination approach and adjusted milestones to ensure all partners could contribute meaningfully. Another challenge was securing participation from diverse stakeholders in Brazil’s water and finance sectors, which was mitigated through engagement with local networks and targeted outreach before the workshop.