Finland joined Inter-American Development Bank’s NDC Pipeline Accelerator Trust Fund

NordenBladet — Finland joined the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) climate fund at the start of 2022. The NDC (nationally determined contributions) Pipeline Accelerator Multi-Donor Trust Fund, ACL in short, is one of the IDB’s main climate finance facilities. Finland’s contribution is EUR 5 million.Particularly Caribbean and Central American countries are highly susceptible to climate change and to the impacts of extreme weather events. The region is also prone to recurring disastrous earthquakes. The repercussions of extreme climate events in the small islands on the Caribbean region can easily paralyse the foundations of whole economies and demand frequent reconstruction. Agriculture, which is an important source of living in Central America, suffers from both droughts and floods caused by extreme weather events.  Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has further weakened the countries’ sustainability and economies.“The IDB is the leading investment catalyser in Latin America and the Caribbean. Finland’s contribution to the Fund is aimed to help particularly the countries that are vulnerable to climate change in adapting to and mitigating its impacts. “We are exporting also Finnish solutions to the region, including, for example, our expertise in the meteorological sector,” says Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari.The ACL supports countries’ own national climate commitments in the Latin America and Caribbean region and assists its partners in planning and designing investments in infrastructure, agriculture, and land-use management. It is not possible to reach the development goals with public funding only, which is why the ACL supports both public and private sector investments. The ACL has been successful in crowding in additional capital. Since its inception, for every dollar invested in the ACL, US$74 of resources have been mobilised in the private and public sectors. Funding from the ACL has been used, for example, to issue Latin American and Caribbean region’s first green bonds in Chile, in total USD 12.6 billion.Currently, ACL projects are under way in more than 20 countries. Examples include an improvement of the electric grid in the Bahamas, fostering the transition to electric buses in the city of Medellín in Colombia, and development of bioeconomy in Peru. The aim is to eventually scale up best practices in other countries, especially in the poorest countries that do not have opportunities to lead the way.