IDB - Inter-American Development Bank

Published purpose

This initiative aims to support projects across Latin America and the Caribbean that are focused on renewable energy, energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and that help countries to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change. The Canadian Climate Fund for the Private Sector in the Americas (the Fund) aims to play a key role in overcoming leading edge technology risks and cost hurdles in order to spark and scale-up projects to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. Clean energy is a key focus of the Fund, and projects supported by the Fund may include wind, solar, geothermal and hydro projects. In addition. The Fund may also support agriculture, forestry and adaptation measures such as reforestation, soil sequestration and climate resilient infrastructure. The Fund, managed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), catalyzes private sector climate mitigation and adaptation projects that require loans with concessionary terms to be viable. The Fund may provide up to half of its financing in repayable contributions offered in the local currency, rather than US dollars, to encourage local companies to invest by protecting them from unexpected borrowing costs that might result from fluctuations in the US dollar. The IDB, the Inter-American Investment Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Fund co-finance Fund projects. Canada's contribution to the Fund is expected to leverage up to US $5 billion in private sector investment and help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 50 million tonnes over the Fund's 25-year life.