ECLAC and IDB organize dialogue between finance ministries and environment ministries and highlight the importance of regional cooperation to strengthen climate finance at the LEDS LAC 2024 Meeting

From September 30 to October 2, 2024, in Foz de Iguazú, Brazil, the LEDS LAC 2024 Regional Workshop took place, a key space to promote regional cooperation on climate action. In this framework, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), with the support of the Euroclima program, actively participated in discussions on strategies to strengthen climate finance in the region. This event brought together more than 120 representatives from governments, the private sector, civil society and international organizations, with the aim of accelerating the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Long Term Strategies (LTS).

During the workshop, Santiago Lorenzo, head of the Climate Change Economics Unit of ECLAC, presented an assessment of the state of climate finance in Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighting the importance of aligning the entire financial system with climate objectives, integrating environmental parameters in its general operation. In addition, he pointed out that green, social and sustainability-linked bonds accumulate 154 billion dollars by 2022, which represents 21% of the region’s debt.

Lorenzo highlighted that five countries have published green taxonomies (Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic) and face the challenge of the complexity of their implementation. Regarding the evolution of climate financing, between 2013 and 2020 the region mobilized an average of 20 billion dollars, of which 90% comes from multilateral development banks and green bonds. He stressed that to comply with climate action commitments, between 2023 and 2030, a cumulative investment of up to 2.8 trillion dollars or five points of regional GDP is required to cover adaptation and mitigation needs. Furthermore, he emphasized the urgency of developing robust green projects and increasing the training of personnel specialized in climate finance within financial institutions.

In the Dialogue between Ministries of Finance and Ministries of the Environment co-organized by ECLAC and the IDB, the areas of opportunity that exist in the ministries of finance to contribute to climate action were addressed. The countries that participated in the Dialogue highlighted the need to strengthen the technical capacities of both ministries to achieve greater alignment between nationally determined contributions (NDC) and Long Term Strategies (LTS) with investment plans and portfolios, as well as such as inter-ministerial collaboration to ensure climate financing through carbon markets and access to international funds.

The workshop also addressed fundamental issues related to resource mobilization for climate change adaptation and nature conservation, as well as the importance of multi-stakeholder governance to ensure the effective implementation of commitments made by countries in the region.

With the active collaboration of ECLAC and Euroclima, the LEDS LAC 2024 Regional Workshop reaffirmed the commitment of Latin American and Caribbean countries to a more sustainable future, emphasizing the urgency of articulating regional efforts to confront climate change in a more ambitious and coordinated manner. ECLAC, with its central role in the workshop, continues to support the countries of the region in the creation of policies that promote both mitigation and adaptation, and that contribute to more inclusive and sustainable development.