Climate Finance Fundamentals 6: Regional Briefing - Latin America

Latin America is a highly heterogeneous region, with differences in levels of economic development and social and indigenous history, both among and within countries. The impacts of climate change – in particular glacial melt and changes in river flows, extreme weather events and risks to food production systems – affect development in both rural and urban areas in the region (World Bank, 2014). Climate finance in the Latin American region is highly concentrated, with Brazil, Mexico and Colombia receiving close to half of the region’s funding. Mitigation activities, including forest protection and reforestation, receive more than six times that of adaptation from multilateral climate funds, at USD 3.1 billion and USD 0.5 billion respectively. Since 2003, a total of USD 4.2 billion has been approved for 505 projects in the region from multilateral climate funds tracked by Climate Funds Update (CFU).1 In 2020, 36 new projects were approved totalling USD 556 million. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) funded 84% of these new projects.