Central America and the Caribbean’s best ESG deal 2025: Barbados’s sustainability-linked loan facility

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In 2024, Barbados executed a pioneering debt-for-climate-resilience transaction that redefined sovereign ESG finance in the Caribbean. The deal generated $125 million in fiscal savings and unlocked an additional $100 million in financing and grants, including a $40 million grant from the Green Climate Fund. The transaction enabled the government to refinance high-cost debt and invest in climate-resilient water infrastructure without increasing its debt burden. 

Led by CIBC Caribbean Bank and supported by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and European Investment Bank (EIB), the facility introduced the world’s first sovereign sustainability-linked loan (SSLL) tied to a water security project.

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