3 October 2012: The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the German International Development Agency (GIZ) have signed the implementing contract for a two-year, €4,725,000 cooperation programme on low-carbon economic growth and social cohesion in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), which was agreed by ECLAC and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in November 2011.

The implementing contract was signed on 3 October 2012, in Santiago, Chile, by ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena and the Director of GIZ’s South America Department, Sabine Muller.

BMZ and ECLAC signed an agreement launching the programme on 18 November 2011. It began operating on 1 July 2012 and will run through 30 June 2014. The implementing contract sets out the activities covered by the programme, consisting of two components and six projects.

One programme component, “Climate change: opportunities for low-carbon development paths,” has four projects: REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries) and low-carbon development paths; fiscal policy and climate change; “innovation in the context of climate change: development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)”; and sustainable energy.

The second programme component, “The new relationship between State, market and society for equality and environmental sustainability,” has two components: “fiscal covenant for growth and equality” and “social covenant for more inclusive social protection.” [ECLAC Press Release] [IISD RS Story on the BMZ-ECLAC Agreement]