How to mobilize sustainable financing in Latin America and the Caribbean when capital exists, but is not always well directed? This article gathers the main lessons learned from the IKI regional workshop, which reflected on how to redirect flows, strengthen capacities and scale up climate action through networking.
Closing the financing gap for climate action and biodiversity conservation has established itself as one of the central thrusts of global climate governance, with increasingly clear implications for regional and national efforts.
In this context, the virtual regional workshop “Mobilizing Sustainable Finance in Latin America and the Caribbean” was held on February 4, 2026, organized by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) Interfaces of Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica (covering Central America and the Caribbean), Colombia and Peru. The meeting brought together IKI projects, financial actors and representatives of international cooperation to exchange concrete experiences and reflect on how to translate global debates into operational financial mechanisms in the region.
During the opening of the event, Sören Kirstein, director of the IKI Interface project in Colombia, stressed that the mobilization of sustainable finance has become a cross-cutting axis of climate cooperation and highlighted the importance of exchange between projects to identify effective approaches and generate synergies at the regional level. In this context, the role of the Interface projects in the 14 IKI focus countries is key, as they facilitate the exchange between projects.
This perspective was complemented by Till Tibbe, Policy Advisor of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) Division of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN). He highlighted the IKI Strategy towards 2030, which sets clear goals to strengthen enabling environments, scale up the implementation of climate and biodiversity measures, and mobilize at least 1.5 billion euros in private capital in partner countries. He also presented several best practices from the IKI portfolio for mobilizing and catalyzing financial resources.
One of the strongest messages of the event came from the financial sector. In his speech, Markus Müller, Director of Sustainable Investments at Deutsche Bank, made a key point for the current debate by pointing out that resources are available, but that the main challenge lies in the direction they are taking, and that good intentions alone are not enough.
This statement highlighted one of the main challenges in mobilizing sustainable finance: available capital is not always aligned with climate and biodiversity objectives. To make progress in this regard, a combination of clear regulatory frameworks, appropriate financial instruments and projects capable of absorbing investment effectively is required.
From the perspective of the IKI projects, the workshop showed how these challenges are being addressed in practice. Ana Orozco, UNDP Environmental Finance Specialist and representative of the IKI BIOFIN project, emphasized the need to rethink existing financial flows and explained that the BIOFIN conceptual model starts from identifying the real financing needs to achieve systemic transformations, and uses a robust methodology to develop financing plans to close the existing gap and change flows. BIOFIN currently operates in 133 countries, demonstrating the potential of this approach to scale positive financial solutions for biodiversity.
The role of blended finance was another of the central themes of the meeting. Based on the experience of the IKI-LAC Fund for the Mobilization of the Private Sector for Climate, Paola Pedroza, Director of Blended Finance at IDB Invest, highlighted the importance of leveraging existing financial tools to attract the private sector to sustainable development projects in the region.
Pedroza emphasized that these mechanisms make it possible to reduce risks, improve investment conditions and generate confidence, which has made it possible to significantly scale the resources mobilized. The message was clear: when the financial design is adequate, private capital does respond.
The workshop also included the participation of the IKI LACADI project, represented by Mariana Rojas Laserna, Director of Climate Finance at Transforma, who shared experiences on the integration of climate risks and opportunities in the Latin American financial system. She highlighted the importance of strengthening technical capacities and outreach frameworks as a basis for mobilizing sustainable finance.
The IKI FAST project, through Christine Majowski, Sustainable Finance Project Manager at GIZ Brazil, discussed how sustainable public finance can help achieve climate and biodiversity goals. The importance of aligning fiscal and budgetary instruments to transform financial flows in the region was also addressed.
In addition to the presentations, a participatory dynamic was included, in which the projects shared first-hand their experiences in mobilizing sustainable financing. The responses evidenced that the main obstacles are not necessarily in the lack of capital, but in structural factors such as:
- the perception of high risk by the financial sector,
- the absence or weakness of adequate financial instruments,
- and the lack of technical capabilities, information and sufficiently structured projects to access financing.
At the same time, the projects agreed that the most relevant conditions for strengthening resource mobilization include clear and stable regulatory frameworks, combined financing schemes, continuous technical assistance and spaces for articulation between public and private actors.
At the closing of the event, Miriam Velasco, Director of the IKI Interface Project in Peru, stressed the importance of investing in knowledge generation and promotion, as well as strengthening the IKI community as an active network, capable of connecting projects, sharing learning and building collective solutions beyond isolated interventions. The final message was clear: mobilizing sustainable financing is a long-term process that requires community, trust and continuous cooperation. In this sense, the workshop not only allowed for the exchange of experiences, but also reinforced a shared vision on how to move forward in a coordinated manner in scaling up climate action and biodiversity conservation in Latin America and the Caribbean.