BEIJING: The road to solving the global climate crisis runs through the forests and renewable energy resources of Latin America and the Caribbean. As the world inches closer to climate tipping points, the Latin American and Caribbean region holds huge untapped potential in not just terrestrial carbon sinks but also pioneering a new financial architecture that rewards environmental stewardship.
Brazil will host the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) in Belem in November at a time that is ripe for transformative leadership, giving Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the chance to emerge as not only a champion of the Global South but also a global climate statesperson. The LAC countries have long waited for the developed world to fulfill their climate finance promises. But with the Global North faltering on its financing commitments — failing to pay the $100 billion per year pledged at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 and likely to do a repeat with the $300 billion promise at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, last year, the LAC countries must chart their shared course.
By embracing multilateralism, harnessing South-South, bilateral and triangular cooperation, establishing research and development centers, and using innovative carbon finance vehicles such as the proposed Tropical Forest Forever Facility, the region can transform carbon credits into tangible, sustainable development dividends. Under Lula’s COP30 presidency, the region has the opportunity to initiate a new era of global carbon financing, proving that tropical forest conservation is an investable class of sovereign asset vital to a fairer and more resilient future.
ssional finance, invest in green bonds, transfer for compliance or fund domestic climate action initiatives. Such a mechanism not only aligns with Nationally Determined Contributions — climate action plans submitted by individual countries to the UNFCCC under the Paris Agreement — but also with performance payments, markets and transparency under the same agreement.
It offers the potential to unlock fresh carbon capital where it is most needed.
Honduras is an early mover in this emerging climate finance space. During Honduran president Xiomara Castro de Zelaya’s tenure as president pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Honduras became the first country in the world to post sovereign carbon credits under the UN’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation framework for 2023, totaling 11.8 million credit units of carbon dioxide, fully compliant with the Paris Agreement for the 2021-23 period. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
