CAF Shares Opportunities for Green Finance in Bolivia and the Region

A group of ventures that uses energy efficiency and renewable energies for their development presented their experience in an online conference organized by CAF—development bank of Latin America—to encourage the nation’s banks to support such initiatives.

CAF representative in Bolivia Florentino Fernández Venegas explained during the webinar that funds could be channeled “through loans with intermediary financial institutions and also with the technical assistance and specialized support of CAF and KfW.”

A total of 120 people, including bank executives and specialists in green finance ventures, joined from different parts of the country.

In 2020, through the DRFI of the Vice Presidency of Finance and as part of the official financial cooperation between Germany and CAF and the German government’s development bank (KfW), a credit line of up to USD 70 million was launched to finance energy efficiency measures in Latin America.

“Furthermore, an additional non-refundable amount of 837,000 euros is available as a complementary measure, to provide services as well as energy consultancies and audits for successful implementation of the loans,” Fernández explained.

The entrepreneurs, including Cochabamba-based electric vehicle manufacturer Quantum and recycler Empacar, provided technical information on the potential of their projects for growth, considering expert advice.

CAF announced the initiative of the complementary measure of CAF’s Green Program, which focuses on green businesses since 2015, and has produced a green rating methodology and more than 40 Manuals and Guides by economic sector and by technology, among other tools to identify investments in favor of energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies.

“These loans cover, among other things, investments in modernization of energy-efficient equipment, construction of infrastructure, heating, cooling, lighting, resources, projects that use renewable energy for their own consumption,” Fernandez said.

The purpose is to contribute to the reduction of energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to help comply with the 2015 Paris Agreement and also with the contributions determined in Bolivia.

At the conference, Quantum revealed that it sold 380 vehicles in a year, i.e. 22 tons of CO2 per month will no longer be emitted thanks to their electric vehicles. 

“This CAF project seeks to help reduce the barriers that are basically lack of knowledge of small and medium-sized companies on energy efficiency issues, lack of connection between suppliers and customers, as well as the absence of efficient technologies and incipient government incentive,” said Gonzalo Barrios, specialist in Sustainable Finance at IPC-Deuman.

Also, Turián Palacios, specialist in Energy Efficiency at IPC-Deuman, explained that 63% of the energy produced by the country is generated through thermal plants (natural gas and diesel oil), 36% from renewable sources (hydroelectric) and 4% from alternative sources (wind, solar and biomass).

He also pointed out that the price of energy in Bolivia is low compared to the average of the rest of South American countries, since it is subsidized, and pointed out that the sectors with the potentially largest demand are construction, transport and trade.

Lastly, Palacios stressed that recently-enacted Decree 4477 opens up the possibilities for private companies to generate electricity and for their surpluses to be injected into the SIN (National Interconnected System), “which shows a positive outlook for Bolivia.”

To close the event, the bank’s officials ratified that all these efforts for the implementation of investments in energy efficiency are part of CAF’s commitment to working in favor of sustainable development and Latin American integration as fundamental pillars to achieve an increasingly inclusive society and climate change resilient financial system, with positive impacts on ecosystems.