21 June 2012: The Latin American Development Bank (CAF) and Brazil’s Financier of Studies and Projects (FINEP) signed an agreement to formally launch the Regional Initiative for Technological Innovation in the Renewable Energy Sector.

The agreement was signed at a ceremony at the Sustainable Brazil Expo with Enrique Garcia, CAF President, and Glauco Arbix, FINEP President, held 21 June 2012 against the backdrop of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Regional Initiative was introduced by CAF in a March 2012 seminar held in Lima, Peru.

Under the agreement, CAF and FINEP each will provide US$100 million over the next four years to leverage projects of micro, small and medium-sized companies, as well as those carried out in partnership between companies from different Latin American countries, as part of CAF’s drive to create a regional platform to generate international patents in Latin America related to new renewable energy technologies.

CAF and FINEP will issue invitations to submit patentable technology proposals, to be followed by implementation of pilot projects for technologies selected, as well as support for marketing the technologies and for protecting their intellectual property rights. CAF and FINEP intend to issue the first call for projects in the second half of 2012 for hydro-kinetic patents that allow for generating energy from river flow, with an eye to implementing pilot projects for rural electrification in the western Amazon under the Brazilian Government’s “Light for All” program, created in 2003.

FINEP is a state-owned company affiliated with the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. [CAF Press Release] [FINEP Press Release (Portuguese)] [IISD RS article on the Lima Seminar]