CAF will be the “green bank” of Latin America and the Caribbean in five years

The Development Bank of Latin America-CAF “will become the green bank of Latin America and the Caribbean in the next five years”, Which will help the 19 member countries to meet their objectives against climate change, declared the vice president of Sustainable Development of the entity, Julián Suárez.

In an interview during the UN COP26 climate summit, which will be held until November 12 in Glasgow (United Kingdom), Suárez explained that this goal is set “within the framework of a change in CAF’s management”, After Sergio Díaz-Granados took office as new executive president on September 1.

Diaz-Granados “He is particularly involved in the climate agenda, given that originally – he is from the Colombian Caribbean – he has known first-hand its vicissitudes in the past“Said the vice president.

In its ecological transition, the entity is preparing to “Be very close” of its shareholder countries -17 from Latin America and the Caribbean plus Spain and Portugal-, “accompanying them in their climate and environmental agendas”, Specifically in the fulfillment of its programs of reduction of carbon emissions, affirmed.

In numbers, he specified Suarez, the bank “in the next five years it will directly finance around US $ 25,000 million (about 21,600 million euros) in favor of the climate and environment agendas“, Understanding the link between”mitigation and adaptation to climate change with positive biodiversity ”.

This direct financing implies that at least 40% of the total of new CAF financing approvals by 2026 “incorporate environmental and climate benefits according to a commonly defined taxonomy at the international level”, Compared to 26% in 2020, he assured.

The vice president said that the type of projects that they will finance based on the green agenda are, for example, programs to decarbonize public transport, introducing electric vehicles as far as possible, or to deliver “decent water and sanitation”To communities still underserved.

The bank, he added, is also working to become “in a strategic and reliable platform to enable international cooperation, including that which developing economies have committed within the framework of the COP, to land in favor of the climate agendas, especially climate adaptation, towards Latin America and the Caribbean”.

“We are considering that in the next five years at least US $ 1,500 million (1,300 million euros) from the three UN environment and climate mechanisms under concessional conditions may reach the region through CAF as the implementing agency for access. direct”, He indicated.

Suárez pointed out that COP26 it is “an opportunity like no other”For developed countries to reach the target promised in 2009 of contributing at least US $ 100 billion (86.7 billion euros) annually to help developing states mitigate and adapt to the ravages of climate change.

On the other hand, the vice president assured that CAF it is “carbono neutral”Since its inception in 1970 and revealed that this same week it registered the carbon credits acquired to offset the institutional carbon footprint of 2020, in this case of a program that protects 710,000 hectares of indigenous tropical forest in Colombia.