The EC2 program looks to catalyze private sector-led sustainable financing, expanded exports, and responsible tourism and investment in Latin America by pro-actively working to empower a future generation of Latin business, public sector and civil society leaders committed to seizing the current COVID-19 moment to position their respective institutions and communities toward a more sustainable future.
The Institute of the Americas will help drive sustainability leadership in the region through informing and empowering Latin American public agencies and NGOs to expand their options for sustainable financing. Strides have been made here through the Las Californias Blue Carbon Initiative, by exploring and effectively enacting changes that will enable innovative finance mechanisms for the protection and conservation of coastal wetlands that offer a myriad of ecosystem services for the surrounding communities.
The EC2 program also looks to spur expanded private sector investment and trade, exports, and business that might otherwise not be possible if not for our pro-active efforts to support expanded sustainability leadership in the region. This will be advanced through ESG-focused research and thought-leadership with a focus on Scope 3 emissions and supply chains, in collaboration with EC2 Non-Resident Fellow Soffia Alarcón Diaz. The program is also looking to spur action to mitigate ship-borne marine pollution in Baja California Sur to promote a more sustainable tourism sector, through research and government engagement.
Towards this end, EC2 has established a strong partnership with the Center for US-Mexican Studies at UC San Diego, School of Global Policy & Strategy (GPS), as well as the Brookings Institution and the Tec de Monterrey, to create a binational Climate Change Working Group to support both countries advance a joint climate agenda. It also established strong ties with climate scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, through the Gulf of California Marine Program (GCMP), which merged with the IOA in June 2021. Likewise, more recently, it partnered with the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, California Chapter, to work with US and Mexico-based firms interested in growing sustainable supply chains.