Interest in the environmental credentials of the Caribbean by both the United States and the Inter-American Development Bank (IABD) is expected to be strengthened in the wake of the signing of a Letter of Intent by US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment and IDB President IIan Goldfajn, a prerequisite to the launch of the Americas Partnership Fund for Nature in the Hemisphere. The signing of the Letter of Intent will pave the way for the creation of a Fund that will support America’s Partnership for Economic Prosperity (Americas Partnership) in pursuit of technical cooperation to enable mainstream climate, biodiversity, natural capital, and nature-based solutions (NBS) into economic development plans and investments.
The Americas Partnership Fund for Nature was announced by US President Joe Biden at the just concluded Leaders’ Summit of the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity. Information emanating from the US State Department indicates that the purpose of the Fund is to “catalyse investment in the Western Hemisphere’s vast natural capital and unlock nature-based solutions (NBS).” The State Department reportedly said that under this initiative, the goal is to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect ecosystems, boosting job creation and prosperity, and safeguard lives and livelihoods from the impacts of climate change”. Countries in the Caribbean and Latin America will benefit from technical cooperation initiatives aimed at mainstreaming climate, biodiversity, natural capital, and NBS into economic development plans and investments.
A statement from the State Department also asserts that “investor demand and interest in nature-based solutions has been growing steadily in recent years”, though it adds that “many innovative projects and transactions do not materialize due to a shortage of early-stage grant funding.” It adds that in order to address this bottleneck, the Fund for Nature “will provide grant financing for technical cooperation, including analytics, project design, capacity building, and natural capital valuation.” It adds that the outcomes of these grant-funded projects “will support the financing of nature-based solutions through innovative transactions and instruments, including debt-for-nature, debt-for-climate swaps and sustainability-linked bonds.
