The COP28 meeting held in Dubai in December 2023 had an estimate of 100,000 registered participants, including 2,260 official representatives from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). IDB Invest participation in COP28 included more than 60 events in its pavilion, six agreements and MOUs signed and 15 bilateral meetings. A recent post in IDB Invest blog states that two unseen takeaways from COP28 were: i) LAC region being recognized as a hub of innovation on climate action; and ii) the role of private sector being more committed than ever and leading climate action.

LAC region is recognized as a global solutions region for its unique capabilities to address climate change challenges, the access to vast reserves of key minerals for the energy transition like lithium and copper, rich biodiversity, potential for clean energy development, and the ability to lead in adaptation and nature-based solutions. Some examples of LAC region on innovation climate action include:

• Bridgetown Initiative, a groundbreaking approach to substantially tweaking the global financial architecture and make much more money available, allow more flexibility in how countries could spend it, and have the international financial institutions act as guarantors for larger, more substantial private sector funding.

• Financial structures that reduce the level of debt through debt-for-nature and debt-for-climate swaps to promote climate action, as seen in Ecuador, the Bahamas, and Barbados.

• Financial resilience clauses introduced by IDB Invest to protect production flows in agribusiness against climatic events and to safeguard infrastructure projects, such as ports in the Caribbean.

• IDB Lab, an innovation laboratory being a key driver in the development of innovation ecosystem across the LAC region.

• Green Entrepreneurial Engine, which represents a financial commitment of $46 million from 26 partners, aimed at fostering climate and nature-based innovations.

Another remarkable aspect of this COP28 was the role of the private sector, both in the number of participants and in the commitments and initiatives unleashed. Some examples included: i) the Business & Philanthropy Climate Forum as a multistakeholder engagement platform for the private sector (which brought more than 1,300 global business leaders and philanthropists together with MDBs and political leaders from emerging economies); ii) the UN Global Compact Think Lab on Biodiversity and Nature (an initiative that will assist companies in implementing nature strategies); iii) the release of the Race to Zero 2023 Progress Report; iv) the Global Capacity Building Coalition.