EUROCLIMA+: opportunities and challenges of climate finance in Latin America

Finding funds to address climate change

Gathering about a hundred participants for conferences and workshops, the EUROCLIMA+ Annual Meeting focused on the opportunities and challenges of climate finance in Latin America, a region particularly affected by global warming.

For if there are many green investment opportunities in the region (especially green bonds), Latin America also has to face a contraction of available funding: according to ECLAC, important sums were mobilised to fight against climate change between 2013 and 2016 ($ 20,000 million per year on average) but they were much less important in 2016, with a decrease of approximately $ 4,500 million.

Mobilising funds – both from public and private sources – is therefore a real challenge for Latin America.

En taller sobre finanzas climáticas países discuten estrategias y comparten experiencias en #EUROCLIMA+ pic.twitter.com/kQgKh3f0VS

— Programa EUROCLIMA+ (@EUROCLIMA_UE_AL) 12 octobre 2017

A partnership opportunity between Europe and Latin America

During the meeting, Stella Zervoudaki, head of the EU delegation in Chile, underlined EU’s commitment to “implement efficient actions to reach the ambitious goals” set during COP21. She added that “in the case of Latin America, the EU increased by 10% its budget dedicated to regional cooperation on environmental sustainability and climate change”.

Under this initiative, the EUROCLIMA+ programme aims at responding to this financial challenge: through the calls for proposals launched within each thematic component of the programme, green initiatives will be selected and financed, thus helping partner countries achieve the objectives set during COP21.

The Chilean Minister of Environment, Marcelo Mena, called for a “united and determined climate action” at regional level, and highlighted that EUROCLIMA+ is an excellent partnership opportunity between the EU and Latin American countries. “We must conduct concrete actions to adapt to climate change and mitigate its impact, by promoting economic growth and social equity as elements of each nation’s development policy”, he added.  

EUROCLIMA+, cofinanced by the European Commission, is a programme implemented by a consortium of 5 agencies of EU member states (AECID, AFD, Expertise France, FIIAPP, GIZ) and by two UN agencies (ECLAC and UN Environment).