By Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA – CAF, the Development Bank of Latin America, will use $7 billion in planned equity capitalization to back economic recovery and renewable energy development in the region, its president said on Thursday.
The board of CAF, which has 19 member countries across Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe and 13 private bank members, approved the capitalization plan this week. It will take place gradually.
“We are going in two directions in the next 10 years: first the social and economic reactivation of Latin America, with an inclusive and equitable focus, from the infrastructure sector, working very hard with the private sector,” CAF president Sergio Diaz-Granados told Reuters.
“And the other is to make the CAF the green bank of the region, the bank is not just for sustainable reactivation, but is thinking of carbon neutrality,” he said.
The bank will direct $25 billion over the next five years to countries to increase climate resilience, push toward renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen biodiversity and conservation efforts, Diaz-Granados said.
The bank will also increase funding for projects like electric transport.
Renewable energy, a recovery in tourism and digital advances could creates almost 15 million jobs in the region during the next decade, Diaz-Granados said, more than were lost due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The bank could issue $37 billion in bonds in the coming years, he said.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb)