GreenFin- Multilateral Development Banks

Project summary

Through our Green Finance project in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, the Natural Capital project aims to help decision makers better understand how different policies and investment targeting nature-based solutions can help stimulate economic recovery and socio-cultural resilience to shocks such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we aim to work with multilateral development institutions (MDBs) to help identify their key information needs that, if addressed, would help overcome barriers to achieving country and MDB policy goals in 3 focal countries (Colombia, Costa Rica, and Belize). We aim to identify key policy or investment opportunities and implementation actors in the LAC region to evaluate how our analyses, tools, or curricula can help demonstrate in tangible ways the potential for investments in biodiversity and ecosystems to support green, inclusive growth.

Our objective is to work with the MDBs to adapt or adopt new standardized guidance, evaluation metrics, demonstrations of application, and/or decision support tools developed to align financing with natural capital-based sustainable development plans, economic stimulus strategies, or green growth policies. To begin this process of engagement, we aim to answer the following questions as part of our scoping.

What opportunities exist for your bank to incorporate natural capital and ecosystem services into COVID recovery funding investments in the region?
What finance or policy levers at the bank have the greatest potential to integrate natural capital and ecosystem services into bank operations (e.g., standards, loan evaluation, etc.), based on current policies and procedures connected to finance?
What are the key opportunities to expand the incorporation of natural capital and ecosystems services into existing bank policies and procedures?
How does financing and support from the bank currently align with sustainable development plans and green growth policies (e.g., PES, NDCs, etc.) in Belize, Colombia, and Costa Rica? What is the relative magnitude of the bank’s financing compared to other finance mechanisms for these national plans?
What guidance, capacity building, or data/decision support tools can the Natural Capital Project provide to support the bank to improve targeting and incorporation of natural capital and ecosystem services into your investments, policies and standards in the LAC region?