To help realise the clean energy ambition in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region and enable the necessary mobilisation of finance and investment to support implementation of clean energy projects, governments throughout LAC have established high-level policies, many of which are focused on clean energy solutions like sustainable bioenergy and waste-to-energy as key parts of national decarbonisation strategies and objectives. These solutions can also achieve a number of other socio-economic benefits, including improved reliability of energy supply, improved access to affordable and reliable energy in areas that are not connected to the national electricity grid, and reduced amounts of waste going to capacity-limited landfills.
However, projects often lack access to financing to bring a feasible project to development, as identified in the report Enabling conditions for bioenergy finance and investment in Colombia. Many banking or finance institutions also lack the knowledge and tools to evaluate energy projects that may utilise technologies or energy sources they are less familiar with.
This workshop helped bridge the gap between investment-ready bioenergy projects in the LAC region and clean energy financing. This was achieved by creating a space for both project developers and finance institutions to present their perspectives, priorities and challenges, and facilitating an opportunity for matchmaking via a project pitching and panel feedback session.
The target audience for this workshop was bioenergy project developers, interested finance institutions, international co-operation agencies, donors, development partners, and other stakeholders involved in the development of bioenergy projects. The workshop was also aimed at the LEDS LAC Bioenergy Community of Practice network and other bioenergy platforms.