Sergio DiazGranados, executive president of CAF Latin America (Development Bank of Latin America), believes that there are “great opportunities” to encourage the energy transition in all Latin American countries where the bank has been financing operations for over half a century. Former Colombian Minister of Commerce and Industry points out that there is “a huge bet to attract investments flows” to this economic area in order to promote a sustainable model and solve the environmental issues that the world faces.
Diaz-Granados recalled that there is no climate solution without Latin America, since they have a third of the world’s forest. In an informative meeting, Diaz-Granados wanted to “reaffirm” CAF’s commitment to the “energy transition, the environment, and biodiversity”. The bank’s goal is to finance more environmental projects.
Despite the problems arising from the pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine, the president CAF believes that direct investment flows are essential, even though interest rates have risen around the globe. Latin America will be able to cope better with the reduction in financing available due to rate hikes if it attracts direct investment.
Sergio DiazGranados sees this as more than just a debate about fossil fuels and how they are used. What is needed is an analysis of other concepts such as carbon capture or electrification of public transportation in Latin America’s major cities.
Spain celebrated its 20th anniversary as a shareholder of Development Bank of Latin America CAF. This period saw 6,176 million dollars (or 5,795 million euro) awarded to Spanish companies that were financed by the multilateral institution. This figure is not the only one. Another 38 million dollars have been mobilized for technical cooperation projects. 700 million more has been used to co-finance and lend with Spanish financial institutions. And financing of over 1,210 million dollars was obtained.
