This study investigates how national development banks contribute to bridging the financing gap for climate adaptation and attaining sustainable development goals through innovation. To this end, we focus on the case of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). We analyze the importance of green economy and innovation in the last decade of the 21st century. With documentary research, we present the green innovation projects that BNDES has supported to reach sustainable development goals. As a result, we can observe the great capacity of BNDES to act as the main government promoter of innovation and the Brazilian tendencies for innovative projects and innovative tools to generate investment resources.