Environmental Projects

This section presents CAF's management model for GEF projects, once it is accredited as the fund's implementing agency; for consultation of people and organizations interested in submitting proposals to access GEF funding or people who may be directly or indirectly affected by the potential impacts of the proposed initiatives during the project cycle.

To request information, send complaints or report concerns about CAF-GEF projects, write to us using the request information button:

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Components of the management model:

Policy guidelines regarding:

• Environmental and social safeguards Gender equity
• Public participation
• Accountability and attention to complaints and claims
• The management framework for the design, monitoring and evaluation of the projects that will be financed by GEF and implemented by CAF in its member countries.

Management model application:

The model will be applied to selected initiatives of CAF shareholder countries in strategic focal and multifocal areas of the GEF, in order to promote an improvement in the quality of life of societies, overcoming poverty, economic development and well-being. of people in the long run. The selection criteria consider:

• The geographic area of ​​the shareholder countries
  The priorities of these countries within the framework of international conventions
  CAF's program areas

CAF-GEF environmental and social safeguards policy guidelines

In compliance with the minimum standards of the GEF environmental and social safeguards policy, CAF presents its "Environmental and social safeguards policy guidelines for GEF projects":

1. Environmental and social assessment
2. Natural habitats
3. Involuntary resettlements
4. Indigenous villages
5. Pest control
6. Physical cultural resources
7. Dam safety
8. Accountability and attention to complaints and claims
9. Gender equality

In preparing these guidelines, CAF has reviewed the policy frameworks of different multilateral financing organizations. The safeguards referred to by GEF as CORE Standards contain:

• Policy guidelines
• Minimum requirements
• Procedures for its application
• Development of support tools for its implementation (in some cases)

CAF-GEF Public Participation Policy Guidelines

The principles of participation are transversal to other policy guidelines such as environmental and social safeguards and the project management framework. These guidelines are intended to guarantee the design and development of projects considering:

• The procedure for the disclosure of information associated with the project
• The procedure for stakeholder participation in CAF-GEF management
• The consultation procedure with people and groups interested or affected by potential impacts of the projects

CAF-GEF project management framework

CAF has a management framework for GEF projects, which articulates a set of technical criteria, methodologies, procedures and tools to be used in the different stages of the project cycle.

This results-based management framework uses the logical framework as methodological tools for the design, monitoring and evaluation of GEF projects, and the Guidelines of CAF's public participation policy as the basis for its application.

Complaints and claims management system

Within the framework of the principles of accountability and attention to complaints and claims, it is planned to implement a complaints and claims management system to address those that may be generated during the CAF-GEF project cycle. For this purpose, it has formed an ad-hoc committee for the management of complaints and claims, made up of CAF executives and has appointed an ombudsperson.

The Committee will be governed by the standards and procedures adopted for this purpose, within the framework of the policy guidelines on accountability and compliance with environmental and social safeguards for projects.

• Email: ProyectosGEF@caf.com
• Address: Av. Luis Roche, Torre CAF, Altamira, Caracas, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. (Send a sealed envelope addressed to the CAF complaints and claims management committee)
• Whistleblower protection: In accordance with the Policy Guidelines for accountability and attention to complaints and claims, the Chairman of the Complaints and Claims Management Committee ensures the confidentiality of the information provided and the source.

Climate Action and Solar Development Program in the Tarapacá region, Chile

Documents:

• Declaración de impacto ambiental
• CAF - IAS ATACAMA SOLAR SONNEDIX - CHI - JAB
• Informe ambiental y social
• Atacama Solar ESIA Summary
• Environmental Impact Declaration - Atacama
• Atacama Solar PV Gender Assessment 20Jan2016
• CAF - ATACAMA SOLAR PROJECT - PV - Gender Assessment
  
  

Luján River PMRL Project

 Documents:

• IAS - Lujan _ARG ENGLISH.pdf
• IAS - Lujan _ARG_MM_JA V.1.2.pdf
• Marco sobre Aspectos Ambientales y Sociales para el Proyecto "Plan de Manejo de la Cuenca del Río Luján"
• Environmental and Social Management Framework of the Project 'Lujan River Basin Management Plan'

These documents comprise the Environmental and Social Management Framework in Spanish and English for the CAF-GCF program "Green Climate Finance Program for Local Financial Institutions (IFL) in Latin America". The program is designed to accelerate the development and volume of climate change projects in Panama, Ecuador, Peru and Chile with the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, within the energy and land use sectors, by helping market players overcome key barriers to creating viable projects. The program will make available to the IFLs a Green Financial Credit Line and will additionally implement activities financed through donations, with a focus on raising awareness about climate change and mitigation and technical support and capacity building for Program participants. .

The program seeks to attend to external pressures on ecosystems that have irreversible global trends, so that the measures that can be adopted on the islands are not significant; however, mechanisms must be designed to promote an extended global or intergovernmental responsibility, allowing management actions in the territory focused on developing their own capacities for resilience, adaptation and mitigation.

At the socioeconomic level, the local population is highly dependent on tourism. The productive activities of the tourism value chain (energy, agriculture, fishing, hotels, boats, restaurants) require a technological leap to prepare for climate change and need financing sources under advantageous conditions and non-reimbursable resources. Under current conditions (high country risk and post-pandemic), it would not be possible to catalyze an articulated change in the archipelago without GCF financing. Within this framework, it is planned to implement a program with the following components and results:

Component 1: Change of energy matrix in the Galapagos archipelago

• Reduced energy dependency of Galapagos livelihoods through increased access and low emission power generation.
• Reduction of energy consumption of Galapagos livelihoods through the implementation of energy efficiency measures.

Component 2: Strengthening the resilience of Galapagos livelihoods

• The Galapagos food system is climate resilient for both domestic consumption and the sustainable tourism sector.
• Marine and terrestrial ecosystems are under effective restoration schemes.

Component 3: Sustainability Mechanisms for Climate Resilience and Low Emission Livelihoods.

• Strengthening the response capacity of key institutions, local livelihoods and the population of Galapagos.

Colombia is projected to be negatively impacted by climate change, with temperature rises, changes in rainfall regimes, and greater frequency and intensity of weather and climate extremes (Fowler et al., 2021; Kharin et al., 2018; Ramirez-Villegas et al., 2012). Temperatures increased by 0.13 °C per decade in Colombia during the period 1971-2000, reaching 3 to 5 °C by mid-XXI century (Arnell et al, 2004; IPCC, 2007; IDEAM, PNUD, MADS, DNP, CANCILLERÍA, 2017). Climatic variations relevant to agriculture occur at a range of timescales (from days to multiple decades), and it is virtually certain that anthropogenically-driven climate change will alter climatic patterns at all those timescales (Bindoff et al., 2013; Donat et al., 2013; Seneviratne et al., 2018; IPCC, 2021). More specifically, an amplification of ENSO-rainfall variability is projected by the new CMIP6 model ensemble (Yun et al., 2021; IPCC, 2021). Likewise, the frequency of extreme El Niño events is expected to increase with warming (Cai et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2017). Ultimately, while robust projection of ENSO is not feasible with the current generation of climate models, it is clear that ENSO-related climate variations will continue to challenge agricultural production in all regions of Colombia. Strong ENSO events can severely impair agricultural productivity in Colombia (Barrios-Perez et al., 2021).  According to the Third National Communication of Colombia, climate change is expected to have a major impact on the Colombian agricultural sector (IDEAM, PNUD, MADS, DNP, CANCILLERÍA, 2017), due to both the long-term trends in climate with progressive increase in temperature and large anomalies in the timing of periods of excessive rain and drought, as well as greatly increased variation in weather patterns with more frequent and anomalous extreme weather events. 

Among the most relevant challenges in the agricultural sector generated by climate change in Colombia are: i) losses in the livestock sector both in number of animals and productivity; ii) crop yields reductions; iii) reduced resilience of crops to extreme shocks associated with changes in climatic variables; iv) increased variation in both water excess and deficit affecting irrigation water availability; v) increased soil erosion; vi) more frequent deficits in surface soil moisture; vii) increased incidence of pests and diseases; viii) increased occurrence of unexpected fires; ix) reduction of the number of growing cycles; x) increase in greenhouse gas emissions arising from livestock production and deforestation, and; xi) increased variation in crop yields leading to decreased food and nutritional security. At the same time, it should be noted that increased CO2 in the atmosphere will bring opportunities to increase water use efficiency in most crops and to higher potential yields per unit land area of the crops. 

The Climate-smart initiatives for climate change adaptation and sustainability in prioritized agricultural production systems (rice, corn, coffee, banana-plantain, sugar cane, panela cane, potato and cattle) in Colombia (CSICAP) has been formulated under the leadership of the MADR, with technical support from the alliance between Bioversity International and CIAT, in coordination with producer associations, AGROSAVIA and the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), as accredited agency before the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The implementation period will be five years with a scope / impact of 25 years.  

The general objective of the project is to reduce the vulnerability of agricultural production to climatic threats to minimize their impacts on the competitiveness of the agricultural sector and to have an adequate and stable availability of quality food by strengthening climate risk management, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production. The project seeks to change the current paradigm of agricultural production of intensive use of inputs, little adaptation of technologies to reduce the vulnerability of crops to droughts, floods and other climatic stressors. For this paradigm shift, the Project establishes three (3) purposes: (i) implement digital agriculture systems and climate services to modernize agricultural extension services and provide adaptation and mitigation recommendations that support the reduction of agro-climatic risks and the loss of crops, while promoting a low-carbon pathway; (ii) develop, validate and scale-up technologies (genetic improvement, crop management and other technologies) to increase resilience and low-carbon agricultural development and; (iii) strengthen the capacities of producers, technicians, and institutions for the adoption and implementation of technologies and propose new business models based on the massive adoption of technologies under environmental, social, and gender considerations. 

Climate impacts and benefits. It is estimated that the Project will benefit directly more than 619,691 people, 194,871 rural producers and their families directly and 347,996 producers indirectly, and it is expected to increase the climate resilience of the agricultural system in a total of 967,997 hectares, distributed in 22 departments (69% of the country's departments) and 219 municipalities (20% of all municipalities). The total emissions that the project expects to reduce throughout its life is 9,152,034 tCO2e. 

Transport contributes about a quarter of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is growing faster than any other sector. Limiting the increase in global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius requires modifying the sector's emissions trajectory, which in turn implies developing an integrated electric mobility ecosystem, involving various modes of transport, along with low electricity production. in carbon (Paris Declaration on Electro-Mobility and Climate Change & Call to Action, 2015).

Paraguay, Panama and Uruguay face various barriers in terms of structure, knowledge, cost, profitability and risk, for the deployment of electric vehicles on a massive scale. To address them, the Electric Mobility and Low Carbon Transport (EMOTION) program, structured by CAF -development bank of Latin America, will seek to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles through a paradigm shift under a holistic approach.

EMOTION will function as a market accelerator enabling early adoption of electric mobility and will seek to bridge the gap between pilot projects and long-term goals. The objective is to move towards a cleaner, better organized, more efficient, equitable, comfortable, safe, sustainable and affordable transport system, using electric vehicles as a spearhead to promote this change. EMOTION will be implemented in Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay and will have the following components:

• Component 1: Establishment of an ecosystem conducive to electric mobility, through the granting of technical assistance to create a business framework and public policies conducive to the massive deployment of electric vehicles at the local level (project design, design and development of models of business, training, etc.), national (electrification roadmaps, stakeholder coordination, support for national policies favorable to the deployment of electric vehicles, advice on battery reuse, recycling and disposal) and regional (development of capacities, knowledge materials, dissemination and diffusion, monitoring of the program).
• Component 2: Deployment of large-scale electric bus fleets, together with, where possible, innovative business models based on the separation of asset ownership and operation, that modernize and increase the attractiveness of the public transport sector , while making it economically more efficient and sustainable.
• Component 3: Deployment of electric light commercial vehicles (public and private).
• Component 4: Large-scale and gender-responsive fast charging infrastructure deployment.

EMOTION will also have a comprehensive and ambitious Gender Action Plan to improve gender equality and reduce sexual harassment on public transport.