• ALIDE supports the initiative, which is backed by 13 institutions interested in  advancing its  agenda in the region.

May 31, 2022- CAF -the development bank of Latin America–   presented the  Latin American and Caribbean Initiative for Developing the Carbon Market (ILACC) at the Fifty-second General Assembly of the Latin American Association of Development Financing Institutions (ALIDE), held in Willemstad, Curaçao.

The ILACC seeks to boost the global competitiveness of the carbon credits produced in the region by reinforcing the conditions for future volunteer and regulated markets and enhancing their impact on the creation of jobs, income, new technologies, green business clusters and the fight against poverty.

During her presentation,  Gladys Genua, ILACC Director, explained that the project was prompted by the global warming problem and the commitments assumed at the COP26 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and attain carbon neutrality by the year 2050.   She explained, in this connection, that by that year the size of the carbon market could reach some 22 trillion dollars.  This constitutes a major opportunity for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), which, although possessing a great regional potential, participates very little in this global carbon market.

«Development banks have an important role to play in leveraging resources that would make it possible to provide project developers with the financing and technical assistance they require,» Genua affirmed, in pointing up the importance of development finance institutions in this initiative and in the materialization of the region’s carbon market.

The Director of the ILACC went on to explain that the initiative will be implemented through the use of a two-way strategy. On the one hand, countries will be given assistance in building up their national markets and strengthening their regulatory policies and mechanisms,  as well as in creating the necessary technical capacities while, at the same time, difficulties in the value chain and common elements among countries for putting together a regional agenda and creating the platform that would make it possible to develop the regional market that would help LAC position itself on the world stage will be identified.

Among the immediate actions ahead for the ILACC are the preparation of a regional diagnosis on the carbon market; the start-up of an ILACC Carbon Market Observatory; the formation of the Scientific Council and the creation of the Regional ILACC Forum for expanding multilateral cooperation.  The latter would make it possible to broaden the base of climate projects created in the LAC region.

Before the presentation of the initiative concluded, the CAF Vice-President for the Private Sector, Jorge Arbache, ALIDE President, Carlos Linares, and the President of Bancóldex, Javier Diaz, together with other institutions interested in the project, signed the joint declaration of the I ILACC Forum.  This constituted an invitation to development banks wishing to join, inasmuch as the project is intended to become a regional initiative aimed at safeguarding the planet, fighting poverty and promoting economic and social development.

About CAF

CAF —the Development Bank of Latin America— is a multilateral financial institution whose mission is to back the sustainable development of its shareholder countries and the region’s integration by means of loans, non-reimbursable resources and support for the technical and financial restructuring of Latin American public and private sector projects. It is made up of 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries, together with Spain, Portugal and 13 private Latin American banks.

About ALIDE

ALIDE is the community of financial institutions that generates banking solutions for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean. Founded in 1968, its main objective is to contribute to the economic and social development of the region, through the good practices in development financing that it promotes among its associates, about 90 institutions with a presence in more than 20 Latin American countries and other regions of the world.

Contact

Andrea Villafranca
Communications Unit of ALIDE
Phone: +511-203-5520 |: Ext: 227
comunicaciones@alide.org, comunicaciones2@alide.org
www.alide.org