IDB, UK gov unveil new climate finance programme for LatAm

The UK government will contribute about GBP 177 million (USD 233m/EUR 197m) to a new programme with the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB) that will finance sustainable infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean.

IDB said on Wednesday that its private-sector arm IDB Invest has teamed up with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the UK (BEIS) to establish the UK Sustainable Infrastructure Program (SIP). They made the announcement during a joint side event in the context of the COP 23 climate conference in Bonn, Germany.

The SIP will help catalyze private sector investment to implement the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of the Paris Agreement. It will support the development of sustainable, low carbon and climate resilient infrastructure through a wide range of instruments such as grants for technical cooperation and blended finance for loans, equity and guarantees.

“Infrastructure is crucial to economic growth and development, but there is an infrastructure investment gap in the region that needs to be closed,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno.

The UK fund will be spending bilaterally in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, according to Claire Perry, UK Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.317/EUR 1.114)

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