Inter-American Development Group aims to double spending on green projects to US$4bn a year by 2020
A wind farm in Chile’s Coquimbo region (Flickr/ Miguel MS)
By Alex Pashley
Latin America and the Caribbean’s largest source of development aid has said that three in ten of its projects by 2020 will counter climate change.
The Inter-American Development Group aims to provide US$4 billion a year to help fund national pledges made as part of last year’s Paris climate pact. That’s double the rate of climate-friendly initiatives approved over the past five years.
The moves mark another development bank expanding its budget to finance projects like wind farms and flood defences to keep dangerous global warming at bay.
On Thursday, the World Bank Group said it would spend 28% of investments on such projects, representing at least $16bn a year across the group.
The IDB says the region needs to triple climate investments to $75-80bn a year next decade.
“Within the Paris Climate Conference and the Sustainable Development Goals, we now have the technical and political underpinnings for a new sustainable development paradigm,” said IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno in a statement on Sunday.
“In the Bank and the Inter-American Investment Corporation we are joining this effort, convinced of the importance of ensuring that countries are called upon to define and guide the implementation of this agenda.”