The Mexican Council of Sustainable Finance put climate and biodiversity at the center of the Forum FSMX25. In the panel “Let’s talk about climate and biodiversity in Latin America”, specialists explained what instruments already operate and where the bottlenecks are to scale capital.
The meeting brought together Jimena Rugeles, from Transforma in Colombia; Lucila Pinto, from Libélula in Peru; Alan Elizondo, general director of FIRA; and Mariuz Calvet, Chief Sustainability Officer of Santander México.
The interventions drew a regional x-ray: Colombia as a regulatory laboratory, Peru building its taxonomy and Mexico pushing from agriculture and commercial banking. Rugeles said that Colombia is a regional reference in climate finance.
“The national climate finance strategy, the roadmap of green finance and the green taxonomy—the first in the region aligned with international standards—have given a clear signal to the market. These tools are complemented by the issuance of green, social and sustainable bonds and with rules for banks and issuers to reveal risks and opportunities associated with climate and nature.”
Pinto explained that Peru is advancing at a different pace, but has already launched a competitiveness policy that includes a green finance roadmap and a thematic bonus program, including blue bonuses.
“The Peruvian taxonomy is still under construction, with a multisectoral commission and sectoral drafts, while the ‘green protocol’ seeks to coordinate the Ministry of the Environment with banks and microfinance institutions.”
Among the challenges he identified are the lack of technical capabilities, customer resistance to new technologies and the absence of incentives for those who anticipate regulation. From Mexico, Elizondo mentioned the double exposure of the agri-food sector: it emits greenhouse gases and puts pressure on soils and water, but it depends on ecosystem services such as pollination.
FIRA is adjusting its portfolio to stop financing overfertilization and degrading practices, through risk methodologies, fertilizer cuts linked to rate incentives and a climate adaptation bond that channels resources to resilient agricultural projects.
Calvet said that The bank has a decisive lever in the transitionbut warned that sustainable finance cannot remain in the large corporations listed on the stock market. “The objective is ‘to level the playing field’ in the 54 banks and bring green products to SMEs and agri-food chains, while incorporating the biodiversity agenda into climate work.”
He added that the potential of alliances with public institutions and platforms like FIRA to support technological innovation in agriculture and other sectors is enormous.
The panel’s final message was that political time and climate time do not coincide. Without taxonomies, comparable data and coordination between governments, banks, agriculture and household investors, the gap between financing for adaptation and biodiversity widens.
