Frankfurt School supports e-mobility in Latin America

Costa Rica is committed to becoming CO2 neutral by 2050. Achieving this goal implies a paradigm shift in all sectors towards carbon neutrality. This also means transforming the transportation sector, and the country has taken a leap into the future in terms of e-mobility. Costa Rica has the largest EV share in car sales (2.1%) in the region, however, the country does not have dedicated financial products to facilitate the purchase of EVs.

To change this, the Frankfurt School - UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance was hired by the Global Climate Partnership Fund (GCPF) to design a financial product for Promerica, a regional bank, specifically aimed at enabling financing the puchase of EVs. It is the first zero carbon financial product of its kind in Costa Rica.

As an initial part of the project, the Frankfurt School team analysed the EV vehicles market in Costa Rica to define the target group. In parallel to developing the product, Frankfurt School also provided trainings for the bank employees on topics such as unfounded fears that exist about EVs, circular economy and the savings and environmental impacts resulting from the purchase of an EV instead of a combustian engine car, using a tool developed by Frankfurt School. Now, the bank's climate ambition includes establishing a limit for combustion engine vehicle financing and a strong EV financing goal.

For the banking sector, one of the most relevant sustainability issues and tasks is the systematic integration of environmental aspects into relevant business areas. In this sense, the project is part of a paradigm shift contributing to the bank’s strategic goal to align its corporate strategy, business model and activities with and contribute to the implementation of the objectives of Costa Rica’s National Decarbonization Plan. It is about proactively financing more green investments and progressively abandoning those that are incompatible with or undermine the country's climate mitigation and adaptation objectives.