Since 2012, the IDB has allocated approximately US$1.6 billion to projects supporting sustainability, including helping LAC mitigate and adapt to climate change, enhancing sustainability of natural capital, and funding conservation and the preservation of ecosystem services.
• Helping LAC mitigate and adapt to climate change. The IDB helps strengthen LAC countries’ capacity to study, plan and invest in responses to climate change, and provides financing for investments ranging from renewable energy and mass transit to climate-resilient agriculture through public and private sector initiatives. Over the 2012-2015 period, the IDB reported financing an average of 14% of its nearly US$12 billion annual loan portfolio to operations addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation programs. The IDB’s Board of Governors announced recently it decided to raise its level of ambition to dedicate 30% of its loan portfolio to climate action by 2020 in order to help countries implement the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change and achieve their national targets of greenhouse gas reductions and other mitigation and adaptation priorities.
• Enhancing sustainability of natural capital. IDB supports policies, institutions and investments to achieve a more efficient and sustainable use of the region’s natural capital through projects that: (i) define property rights and improve legal certainty in land tenure in order to promote better management of natural resources; (ii) focus on sustainable and productive agriculture, food security, optimizing use of water and soil, and improving equity in their distribution; (iii) improve environmental governance, effective and efficient regulations and instruments, including stronger capacity for integrated management of water resources, land use planning and zoning; and (iv) make available adequate information and improve the quality of monitoring and enforcing mechanisms.
• Funding conservation and the preservation of ecosystem services. In 2013 IDB established its Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Program, which funds projects to provide needed knowledge resources and orient future investment in this area. IDB is also funding a host of tourism investment projects to generate income based upon this natural capital.