The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) invites renewable energy project developers to register projects that are seeking financing on the Climate Investment Platform, a global multi-stakeholder initiative to mobilize investments at the necessary scale to achieve meaningful progress towards climate objectives.

The Climate Investment Platform is organized around 14 regional clusters, including:

• Central America
• South America
• Caribbean Islands

Each regional cluster and investor forum supports matchmaking between projects, project developers, and potential financiers and investors. Renewable energy projects, along with renewable-based electricity grid and energy efficiency projects, may be considered for support.
 
IRENA’s Investment Forums will be structured around three main phases:

• Phase 1: Development of a project pipeline
• Phase 2: Investment Forum event
• ​Phase 3: Post-forum project support

More details on each phase are available at this link. 

Climate Investment Platform

The following information is from the IRENA website: "The Climate Investment Platform (CIP) is a global initiative, announced on the occasion of the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in September 2019, by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All), in co-operation with the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The CIP is an inclusive partnership welcoming all stakeholders, from governments and international organizations to the private sector, to scale up climate action and translate ambitious national climate targets into concrete investments on the ground. Working collectively and together with all interested partners, the CIP aims to mobilise investments at the necessary scale to achieve meaningful progress towards climate objectives. The CIP will initially focus on energy transition, with the ultimate goal of accelerating investments in renewable energy and enabling the realisation of the ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)."

Despite the announced withdrawal by the Trump Administration of the United States from the Paris Agreement, climate and clean energy progress continues across the Americas. The following are some of the significant announcements by national and sub-national governments at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25) held in December 2019 in Madrid, Spain.

America's Pledge, a coalition of U.S. states, cities, businesses, communities of faith, universities, health care and cultural institutions, and other organizations confirmed their commitment to fulfill America’s climate pledge to the world. The latest America's Pledge report, released on December 9, 2019, projects two emissions reductions scenarios based on city, state, business, and federal adoption of ambitious climate action policies:

• Bottom-Up: The first scenario involves a coalition of states, cities, and businesses deploying aggressive best-practice climate policies informed by the ongoing action of current climate leaders. This is projected to reduce emissions 37 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
• All-In: The second scenario involves a reengaged federal government layering aggressive, post-2020 climate action onto the bottom-up efforts outlined in scenario one. This would put the U.S. on track to reduce emissions 49 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, in line with the Paris Agreement, and lay the foundation for a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay and Peru officially declared their commitment to a collective regional objective of 70 percent of renewable energy by 2030. The target was originally announced in November in Peru and will increase renewable energy generation from the current level of 56 percent, with a focus on non-conventional renewable energies. OLADE, the Latin American Energy Organization, will coordinate the initiative and provide data and a platform for countries to develop a work plan to implement the target. (OLADE 12/10/2019) [reprinted from NRDC Latin America Green News]

Twelve renewable energy associations from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Spain signed an agreement to work together to promote renewable energy as a climate change mitigation solution. As part of the Ibero-american Renewable Energy Alliance, the 12 associations will work to replace fossil fuels, build “respectful, harmonious and constructive relations with communities in the areas where projects are developed," and support competition. ACERA, the Chilean Renewable Energy Association, has assumed the General Coordination of the alliance for one year, with the option of re-election for an additional consecutive period. (Revista Electricidad 12/10/2019) [reprinted from NRDC Latin America Green News]  

The government of Costa Rica has released an ambitious plan to decarbonize the country's economy by 2050. The plan has received international attention and praise as the latest example of Costa Rica's climate and clean energy leadership.

The introduction to the plan states:

- Decarbonization and resilience are conceived as a means to transform the development model to one based on the bioeconomy, green growth, inclusion and the improvement of the quality of life of citizens.

- The definition of the key actions was carried out based on the paradigm of transformational change - in contrast to the logic of incremental change - which is required to abolish the use of fossil fuels in our economy.

- In order to bring the concept of decarbonization to practice, a methodology was used whose starting point is a long-term vision of Costa Rica: to have a decarbonized economy by 2050, which has reached the lowest possible level of emissions consistent with the global climate goal - that is; the goal of containing the increase in global temperature well below 2 ° C (and ideally a limit of increase to 1.5 ° C) with respect to pre-industrial levels.

- From this global goal and applying a "backcasting" exercise considering the national reality, the public policy packages and actions that must be implemented from today to reach the goal to 2050 were identified.

A link to the full plan (in Spanish) is here.

A key component of the plan will be electrifying transportation, which accounts for 40% of Costa Rica's greenhouse gas emissions. 

In 2018, 98% of the country’s electricity came from renewable sources, and the economy grew 3%.

The Central American country of Costa Rica has successfully transitioned to a grid powered by nearly 100% renewable resources, according to the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE). The primary sources of Costa Rica's power are  hydro, goethermal, wind, biomass, and solar. Fossil fuels function as backup energy generation source, accounting for less than 2% of generation.

In 2016, Costa Rica relied on renewable sources for 98.12% of its electricity, an impressive achievement and consistent with the 2015 total of 98.99%. Costa Rica further reported that in 2016 it went 250 days using only renewable power sources. With the ability to maintain high levels of renewable electricity for two years, Costa Rica's electricity sector is a world leader in clean energy.

It should be noted, however, that Costa Rica's Reventazon Hydroelectric Project, the largest hydroelectric dam in Central America, has generated concerns due to its environmental impacts on river ecosystems and migrating wildlife, including jaguars. Accordingly, it is to be hoped that Costa Rica continues to invest in non-hydro sources of clean energy, such as wind and solar, which also offer the benefit of operating during the dry season, when hydroelectric production is less reliable.

SolEnergy Farms, together with Perfect Energy and Solar Horizon, will invest $150m in solar energy, with the aim of producing 60 MW in El Salvador, according to Power Engineering International. Initially, $35m will be invested in a 10 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in the municipality of Tecoluca, in the central department of San Vicente. Sol Energy also indicated that it was considering investing an additional $40m in a second phase to produce and sell 40 MW to AES, the private utility.