CAF and BICE led a regional forum on carbon markets, integration and sustainable development.

CAF Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean and the Argentine Development Bank BICE led a regional forum on carbon markets, integration and sustainable development. The meeting brought together experts, government leaders and authorities from international organizations and banks with the aim of analyzing this tool's prospects and its contribution toward mitigating climate change.

The event was attended by Cecilia Nicolini, Secretary of Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation from the Ministry of Environment; Jorge Arbache, Vice President of CAF Private Sector; Mariano de Miguel, President of BICE; Jorge Srur, General Manager of the Southern Region and CAF representative; José Ricardo Sasseron, Banco Do Brasil Vice President of Government and Corporate Sustainability, among others. The meeting was held in a hybrid format with the participation of over a thousand people connected through streaming and in person at BICE's headquarters, located in Buenos Aires.

Jorge Srur, Regional South General Manager and CAF Representative in Paraguay, provided details of the work carried out together with BICE and the importance of this kind of meeting in the climate agenda. "This is a strategic partnership with BICE to carry out a climate action and green financing agenda that has become a priority for us." CAF approved capitalization for the bank, the largest in history, with the objective of increasing technical and financial assistance to the region with various goals, including a special one for climate change. CAF wants to be the green bank of the region," he said.

"With the issue of climate change, Latin America is a solution region because of its natural resources." But we must turn that potential into a reality. This is key in contributing to greater and better participation by the region in global carbon markets as a means of consolidating that process. We must build strong collaboration networks to accelerate transformation of our potential into an effective solution for achieving those sustainable development goals," he added.

Jorge Arbache also pointed out that: "The challenge since the Paris Agreement in 2015 has been to work as investors to redirect resources towards the goal of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)." Carbon credits become important instruments for mitigation projects. "Latin America has the potential to be a carbon credits generator due to its natural capital and clean energies." However, according to a study by CAF, despite the enormous potential, its participation in the voluntary carbon market has been less than 20%. Articulation between public and private sectors and integration between the region's countries are both necessary to capitalize on opportunities," he confirmed.

"We are determining the direction we want for our country in the next 30 years." In terms of climate crisis management, we see opportunities for Argentina and Latin America as key players on the path to achieving sustainable development," said Secretary Cecilia Nicolini at the start of the forum. "We need to integrate at a regional and global level in order to negotiate with more power, thereby reducing asymmetries." Argentina's entry into BRICS enables us to put the topics we are discussing into perspective. This development must be sustainable and inclusive. "That creates opportunities, better jobs, and the conditions to live in harmony with the environment," he added.

Meanwhile, BICE president Mariano de Miguel, contextualized the importance of the day to analyze the climate change problem and how it affects developing countries. "It's important to work on integrating the region's countries with a joint sustainable development strategy, which enables us to avoid being victims of the problems that climate change entails and which we are not mainly responsible for." We experienced it in Argentina with the serious impact of the recent drought, which shows that we are already being affected in the present. "Carbon markets might be an opportunity for our region as instruments of sustainable development." "Not only because of the financing possibilities opened up for companies that produce energy-saving projects, but also because they can contribute to the value chain," he explained.

On behalf of Banco Do Brasil, its Vice President of Government and Corporate Sustainability, José Ricardo Sasseron, stated: "Banco do Brasil is the most sustainable bank in the world, because of the activities it carries out." Today we are looking for international resources to restore degraded areas and increase agricultural and livestock productivity, but without cutting down trees. We are aware that we need to regulate the carbon market in the region. We have the largest forest area. We must see how we can take advantage of this and create value for our economies and export to the whole world.

The meeting organized by CAF with the support of BICE featured three panels where the following topics were discussed: Global perspective and carbon market trends; challenges in the region and integrity and prices.