New Financial Mechanisms for Clean Energy Investments in Latin America

UNEP’s Finance Unit and Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean have commissioned this work to map out regional needs for clean energy investments in Latin America and demonstrate that through an innovative public-private support mechanism, the existing early-stage financing gap for renewable energy and energy efficiency investments in the region can be bridged. The analysis has been focused on 12 countries in Latin America: Six from Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama), and six from South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru). The report starts with a brief overview of the region’s climate, economic, energy profiles and current clean energy investments in section 2. Section 3 takes stock of the current regulatory and policy framework for clean energy and the barriers it poses for clean energy investments while section 4 analyses market and financial barriers. Such barriers are part of a broader context of existing initiatives and trends of which an overview is provided in section 5 to map ongoing efforts and gaps that are left unaddressed. Section 6 works as a conclusion summarizing those gaps and potential ways to address them.