The Washington D.C.-based Inter-American Development Bank will provide Peru $200 million this year to finance sustainable development projects, country representative Fidel Jaramillo said.
“With this [$200 million] we are going to finance projects like the new sustainable energy matrix, adaptation and mitigation to climate change, the management of natural disasters, and the use of water,” Jarmillo said.
The IADB has been financing these types of development projects in Peru for the past two years and expects to continue its work for at least another two, state news agency Andina reported.
Jarmillo said the IADB has been supporting projects on Peru’s main river basins in order to better managed the resource. Water is an important issue particularly on Peru’s arid coastal region. It is one of the main reasons behind social conflicts between industry and communities.
“As well, we are supporting reforms for policy against climate change even though we haven’t yet calculated how much is needed to fight against climate change because there are topics that are related to adaptation and mitigation,” he said.
Jaramillo made the comments during the presentation of the IADB’s Sustainability Report for 2010, which presented the opportunities and challenges for sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean.
According to the report, the region saw an improvement last year in its capacity to resolve its sustainability problems.
In the long term, the report points to the extreme climate challenges that the region will face as a result of climate change and its risk to water supply and biodiversity.
In 2010, the IADB provided about $3.60 billion to the region for projects on environmental and energy sustainability and climate change.
