YAPU to be featured on first Climate Adaptation Summit

After a competitive process, YAPU Solutions has been identified as one of the leading “Innovative Financing Models for Private Sector Investment in Nature-Based Solutions for Adaptation” by the Global Commission on Adaptation’s Nature-Based Solutions Action Track. As such, YAPU will be featured as an example of innovative financing models that are breaking down barriers to finance nature-based solutions in the context of the first worldwide Climate Adaptation Summit hosted by the Netherlands on January 25-26.

The goal of the Climate Adaptation Summit is to accelerate, innovate and scale up the world’s efforts in adapting our societies and economies to the inevitable effects of climate change over the coming decade by launching a comprehensive adaptation action agenda. The Summit will bring together leaders like former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Prime Minister Seikh Hasina and Kristalina Georgieva (Managing Director IMF), among others. They will be joined by institutions, mayors, senior figures from the private sector, civil society and youth movements engaged in climate change adaptation.

The lauded financing model of YAPU focuses on providing (micro)financial institutions (MFIs) with a software platform for the digitization of lending processes that automatically includes the validation of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) as well as climate data. The offer of the platform is combined with standardized and scalable consulting on Adaptation finance, allowing financial institutions to design tailor-made financial lending products including Nature-Based Solutions for small-holder farmers in developing countries. These enable smallholder farmers to invest in more productive farming practices and simultaneously increase their climate resilience. As a result, food security and access to finance for smallholder farmers and the most vulnerable communities that depend on them are increased, while comprehensive data on the economic benefits of Nature-Based Solutions in different local settings are gathered.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte emphasizes the importance of adaptation:

“None of us can escape the consequences of climate change. None of us can turn a blind eye to what is happening right now, and what will happen in the future. All of us have a responsibility to tackle the causes of climate change and adapt to its impact. Now we must take climate adaptation to the next level.”

YAPU Solutions has successfully pursued its approach fostering Climate Adaptation in two flagship projects:

The “Microfinance for Ecosystem-based Adaptation” project (MEbA) which is implemented by UN Environment Programme and financed by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment. The second phase executed by YAPU Solutions comprised an implementation with nine institutions in Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Dominican Republic as well as Senegal and Benin (pls. see www.unepmeba.org).

Furthermore, YAPU is executing the implementation of the “EcoMicro: agricultural finance and smart data for climate adaptation in Ecuador” project, financed by the Inter- American Development Bank (IDBLab), addressing 14 (M)FIs in Ecuador together with Red de Instituciones Financieras de Desarrollo (the largest association of MFIs in Ecuador, pls. see www.ecomicroecuador.org.ec).

YAPU Solutions was founded 2017 in Berlin, Germany and runs a subsidiary in Quito, Ecuador. The company currently operates in Latin America (Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala) and Sub-Saharan Africa (Benin and Senegal).