Announcement: Join us in Panama from 19 - 23 June: Regional Climate Week, hosted by UNFCCC. Read more here.
Parts of this site have been translated using AI
Announcement: Join us in Panama from 19 - 23 June: Regional Climate Week, hosted by UNFCCC. Read more here.
Parts of this site have been translated using AI
Wednesday, 21 May 2025
This week, as Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week opens in Panama City, attention is turning to one of the most urgent questions facing the region: how to turn commitments into credible, community-rooted delivery.
The region is home to some of the world’s most important carbon sinks, fastest-growing clean energy sectors, and most powerful Indigenous climate leadership. It’s also marked by deep inequality, rising climate risk, and limited access to finance, a place where the stakes are high and delivery is often hardest.
With countries preparing to update their NDCs ahead of COP30, this is a critical moment. But while much of the attention centres on governments, some of the most practical progress is happening elsewhere – in classrooms, start-ups, community institutions and Indigenous-led funds.
Impact Makers, launched by COP29 UN Climate Change High-Level Champion Nigar Apardarai, puts a spotlight on those driving that shift at the grassroots. In this special edition to mark this year’s LAC Climate Week, we profile four individuals rethinking how climate action is designed, funded, taught and governed.
As electric vehicles become more commonplace across Latin America, so do the batteries they leave behind. In Colombia, most used lithium-ion batteries are taken out of circulation early – treated as waste, despite still holding usable charge. There’s no national system for assessing their condition, and few options for repair or reuse.
Pablo Castellanos Ramelli co-founded BATx to change how that system works. The Medellín-based team focuses on testing and diagnosing used EV batteries, identifying which can be repaired, refurbished or adapted for second-life applications. Some are repurposed for energy storage in solar power systems, others for light mobility vehicles. The aim is to reduce waste, cut reliance on new materials, and improve access to energy infrastructure in places that are often overlooked.
Impacts include
Developed a patent-pending method to assess and repair EV batteries
Provided off-grid energy access to over 200 people
Prevented 246.5 tonnes of CO₂ emissions
Avoided 10.2 tonnes of hazardous waste
Repaired more than 1,000 batteries for reuse in mobility and solar systems
Efforts to protect the Amazon rarely prioritize the people who live there. Despite repeated calls to support Indigenous governance, less than 1% of international climate finance reaches Indigenous organizations directly. Most decisions are still made elsewhere.
Fany Kuiru is trying to shift that balance. As the first woman to lead COICA – the coordinating body for Indigenous organiz
ations across the Amazon Basin – she has helped establish the Amazon for Life Fund, a mechanism designed to channel resources straight to Indigenous-led initiatives. The fund is governed by Indigenous groups themselves and aims to support local economies, land protection, and long-term territorial control.
The goal is to change who gets to decide how it’s used – and to strengthen the structures that have been protecting the forest for generations.
Impacts include
Launched a $10 million fund in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, with governance led by Indigenous groups
Channelled resources directly to communities for environmental and economic self-determination
Advanced calls for legal recognition of Indigenous territorial rights as a climate priority
Advocated for the protection of 80% of the Amazon by 2025 through Indigenous stewardship
Argentina has a national climate education law on paper, but in most schools it isn’t being taught. There’s little training, few resources, and limited guidance on how to connect the science to students’ lives.
Clara Molteni set up the National Climate Change Olympiads to work around that. The programme uses project-based learning and online collaboration to engage students and teachers across the country. So far, it’s reached 17 provinces and more than 2,000 participants. Some have gone on to develop their own local sustainability projects; others have taken their work to national and international policy spaces.
The Olympiads are part curriculum, part workaround – a way of making climate education real in places where institutional support is still lagging.
Impacts include:
Reached over 1,700 students and 600 teachers nationwide
Delivered educational content in 17 provinces, many outside traditional environmental hubs
Supported student-led projects tackling urban mobility and emissions reduction
Created a national platform linking climate education to real-world decision-making
Sent winning teams to represent Argentina at international youth climate forums
Brazil’s emissions are dominated by land use – particularly deforestation and the degradation of pasture land. At the same time, access to finance for alternatives like regenerative agriculture or nature-based solutions remains limited. The capital exists; it just rarely flows in the right direction.
Gilberto Ribeiro has spent the past decade trying to change that. As Chief Investment Officer at VOX Capital, he works on building and managing funds that direct early-stage investment into climate-related sectors, including renewable energy, agri-tech, and low-carbon food systems. The focus is on structuring finance to reflect the realities of Brazil’s land economy, rather than abstract ESG goals.
Impacts include:
Managed three early-stage venture capital funds totalling over R$420 million
Backed more than 65 companies advancing climate tech, alternative proteins, regenerative agriculture, and energy efficiency
Developed blended finance strategies to mobilize capital for degraded land recovery
Working to raise R$1 billion for nature-based solutions in Brazil over the coming years
