Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt), 8 Nov. Tackling the climate crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean involves “incorporating and increasing private and public capital” and channeling this funding towards joint projects, said Benigno López, vice president of sectors and knowledge at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in ‘scope of the COP27 summit hosting the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh.
Speaking with EFE, López highlighted the challenge of bringing together both the public and private sectors to implement appropriate policies to address the climate emergency, an issue that he considered fundamental “to determine that the future is not lost”.
Specifically, the director general of IDB Invest, James Scriven, highlighted the fundamental role of multilateral banks such as IDB to “accelerate the economic transition and climate transition” of the Latin American region through the synergies between all the agents involved.
Both testimonies are part of the event organized by the IDB “Accelerating the implementation of climate action in Latin America and the Caribbean”, which was also attended by the Minister of the Environment of Ecuador, Gustavo Manrique.
In his speech, Manrique acknowledged the challenge facing Latin American ministers from different portfolios such as Economy, Health and Environment to define budgets that address climate justice and can address the effects of climate change without neglecting the most vulnerable populations.
In 2021, the IDB Group mobilized $ 6,000 million in climate finance, of which half, 3,000 million, went to mitigation projects and activities in several Latin American and Caribbean countries.
In the next few days, the Ibero-American Development Bank will organize other events in the MBD pavilion of the COP27 congress center: “Ecosystems of innovation and climate action”, for the 10th; and “How Mobilizing Climate Finance Promotes Adaptation and Resilience in the Private Sector of Latin America and the Caribbean”, 12.
Until November 18, the COP27 climate summit will bring together nearly 40,000 participants including public authorities, academics, climate activists, businessmen and civil society representatives, in order to seek commitments to address the climate crisis.
Financing adaptation to climate change is one of the central themes of the meeting, which will devote the entire day of November 9 to analyzing how to solve the problem of how to pay for decarbonisation and the energy transition.
