Enrique García highlights the role of CAF in achieving the sustainable development goals and the Paris Agreement

The Executive President of CAF -development bank of Latin America-, Enrique García, participated today in the signing ceremony of the Paris Agreement on climate change, in representation of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC).

García's presence renewed CAF's commitment to promoting sustainable development and combating global warming.

The signing of the Paris Agreement last December, approved by the parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, took place at UN headquarters in New York in a ceremony with the presence of Heads of State and Government, high-ranking officials, private sector leaders and civil society representatives invited by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

In his speech, García highlighted that the IDFC, founded in 2011, is a network of 23 international financial institutions dedicated to development, 19 of which pertain to emerging countries. Together, they annually approve more than USD 600 billion in favor of sustainable development, including USD 100 billion in commitments to green finance.

 "We, members of the IDFC, are also intermediaries for channeling international financing, in our capacity as implementing agencies of mechanisms such as the Green Fund, the Adaptation Fund and the Global Environment Fund, which make new financing options available to the public and private sectors in developing countries with the objective of addressing climate change," he stated.

In addition, García participated as a panelist in a high-level interactive dialogue regarding the implementation of the Paris Agreement, moderated by the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the French Minister of the Environment, Ségolène Royal. In his intervention, he focused on the efforts of the institutions that make up the IDFC to materialize the financing of clean energies, through adequate policies and incentives that allow for achieving the vision set forth in the Paris Agreement.

Likewise, one day before the signing of the Agreement, the Executive President of CAF participated in the High-Level Thematic Debate on how to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which took place on Thursday at UN headquarters.

The event gathered more than 300 public and private sector leaders, with the aim of identifying the most appropriate strategies and effective mechanisms for the international community to achieve these Goals for 2030.

Invited by the President of the UN General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, García intervened as a speaker in an interactive dialogue session regarding sustainable development financing and poverty eradication, in which he stated IDFC's position regarding the need to have projects that attract the investment necessary for achieving the SDGs.