Partners from Latin America learn about energy efficiency

In Germany, KfW funds corporate programmes that promote energy efficiency; these programmes can also serve as models for partners in developing countries and emerging economies. In September, around two dozen representatives of Latin American promotional banks learned about how German companies use energy efficiently in a one-week visit to five federal states.

For many years, KfW Development Bank has been supporting projects that make a contribution to energy efficiency in Latin America on behalf of the German Federal Government. One of these approaches focuses on constructing energy-efficient apartments in Mexico and Chile. The potential, however, has by no means been exhausted: most countries in Latin America have committed to ambitious targets in the Paris Agreement (Nationally Determined Contributions – NDCs) and continue to seek ways to use energy sparingly and efficiently. This involves the areas of energy-efficient construction and transport as well as public infrastructure and private enterprises.

The representatives of the Latin American banks visited companies in five federal states that employ exemplary practices in energy efficiency and are therefore supported by KfW. KfW's guests visited, among others, Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, Werner & Mertz in Mainz (manufacturer of the Frosch brand cleaning product), the Veltins brewery and Trilux in the city of Arnsberg in the Sauerland region.

Sharing experiences with energy-efficient programmes

At Trilux (manufacturer of lighting systems) the delegation learned how the various measures help to achieve energy savings of 85 per cent – for example, through intelligently programmed LED lighting or sensors that detect whether a person is present in a building.

The guests' itinerary also included presentations at KfW Group, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Energy Agency (DENA), combining business practices, financing know-how and policy expertise.

"During our visit, we had productive exchanges about good practices in Germany and Latin America," said Luís Calle from the Latin American development bank CAF. "We saw impressive examples of energy efficiency. We can now return to our countries with this knowledge and see what we can apply there," concluded Francisco González, General Director of Bancomext in Mexico.

KfW Head of Department Stephan Opitz highlighted the important role of energy efficiency in combating climate change in his speech to visitors on the last evening. Hurricanes like Harvey or Irma that recently threatened hundreds of thousands of people in the Caribbean and the USA once again showed how important the economical use of fossil energy sources is. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), around half of preventable emissions will be accounted for by energy efficiency by 2040. This is the only way to limit global warming to 2°C or less.