The executive president of the CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, Sergio Díaz-Granados (Colombia, 57 years old), went over the weekend to Santa Marta, his hometown, to inaugurate the Latin America – European Union business forum, organized together with the Inter-American Development Bank, the EU and the Government of Colombia in parallel with the fourth CELAC-EU summit. Dozens of companies and organizations discussed development finance, renewable energy and inclusive growth on Sunday. In this interview with EL PAÍS, Díaz-Granados explains the role that development banks should play in this context and the importance of keeping the green agenda alive.
Ask: In the framework of this CELAC-EU summit, how do you assess the current state of Latin America’s regional integration?
Answer: 2025 could be the most important year for relations between the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean. For two reasons. First of all because it is possible that we will finally see the birth of the Mercosur-EU trade agreement. We will thus mark 25 years since the start of the process in Rio de Janeiro and we will create the largest free trade area in the world. This year can represent a milestone in both business and investment relationships. And, also, because we managed to carry forward the work of rapprochement between the blocs. In 2023, when the summit was held in Brussels, we were coming off an eight-year hiatus in meetings between the EU and Latin America. Having held the summit in Santa Marta means recreating the bridges of rapprochement between the two. And this is very relevant in the current global context.
Q. What can the CAF contribute to this scenario?
R. The responsibility of development banks like CAF is to crystallize the relationship in areas where we can strengthen it. I am referring to the areas of ecological, energy and digital transition and everything that can bring benefits to people, such as issues relating to unemployment and informality. It’s about being able to make progress on actions that contribute to growth. And there the private sector is important. That’s why we organized a second business forum in two years and are interested in continuing to strengthen this investment channel from Europe to Latin America. The role of a development bank is to convey the messages that emerge from the summit declaration. In this case, 60 countries were represented, a third of the United Nations.
Q. At this summit they announced the availability of 40 billion dollars for green projects. How will it materialize?
R. We already had a commitment to allocate $25 billion in green financing until 2026. This year we have already approved $20 billion. Now we will make another 40 billion available between now and 2030. It was important to announce this in the context of the economic and political summit in Santa Marta, because it indicates where the actions of the development banks are. They are commitments and at the same time an invitation to other banks to join.
Q. Do you see the possibility of other banks joining?
R. It’s not impossible, it will require a lot of openness and planning on the part of countries. These are rules that take time.
Q. Doesn’t climate change denial talk threaten green investments?
R. Rather than fall into an argument about narratives, we need to look at the data. Over the last ten years, data shows the drought and flood phenomena that Latin America has suffered. And they’ve been the worst since we started keeping accounts. We had the worst drought in the Southern Cone and we had floods in Río Grande de Sul (Brazil). And extreme phenomena in Central America. We need to focus on the climate crisis as a water crisis, it is a water management problem. Most of our projects aim right there.
Q. How does a bank like CAF articulate aid when the region shows evident fragmentation?
R. We continually converse with leaders, always seeking the middle ground. It’s a daily building process. We are almost 60 years old and programs start with one government and end with another that benefits from work that started probably 10 years earlier. The bank’s projects transcend the times of governments.
