The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) organized the session "From Climate Risk to Resilient Investment: Challenges and Opportunities for National Public Investment Systems (SNIPs) in Latin America and the Caribbean" as part of the 14th SNIP Network Seminar 2026, held in Asunción, Paraguay. The session fostered dialogue and the exchange of experiences among public investment authorities from Chile, El Salvador, Paraguay and Uruguay on integrating climate change and disaster risk management throughout the public investment project cycle, with the aim of strengthening resilience and improving the quality of public investment across the region.

Opening the session, Jimy Ferrer, Economic Affairs Officer at ECLAC, stressed that the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme climate events requires countries to transform the way they plan, evaluate and prioritize public investments. In this context, he emphasized that integrating climate considerations from the earliest stages of the investment cycle not only strengthens the resilience of infrastructure and public services, but also enhances the social returns of investment projects and contributes to a more efficient allocation of public resources.

One of ECLAC's key messages was that Latin America and the Caribbean now has a broad set of climate planning instruments—including Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and Long-Term Strategies (LTSs)—yet the challenge remains to translate these commitments into investment decisions and public budgets. Closing this implementation gap is essential to accelerate climate adaptation and advance more resilient and sustainable development. 

The discussion provided an opportunity to learn about concrete progress made by countries in integrating climate considerations into their National Public Investment Systems, ranging from methodologies to assess climate risks and strengthen project resilience to planning tools and social and economic appraisal frameworks. The experiences shared demonstrated that there is no single approach to mainstreaming climate change into public investment, but rather a range of strategies tailored to each country's institutional capacities and development priorities.

Among the main lessons highlighted during the session was the importance of strengthening technical and institutional capacities to apply methodologies and tools, while improving coordination among institutions responsible for investment planning, public finance, environmental policy and disaster risk management. Participants also underscored the value of regional cooperation as a means to share methodologies, exchange experiences and accelerate learning across Latin America and the Caribbean.

The discussion also identified several common lessons for the region. These included that integrating climate change considerations from the early stages of public investment improves project quality and reduces future costs; that a gap still persists between climate commitments and their translation into investment portfolios; and that regional cooperation can accelerate the development of methodologies, tools and capacities to strengthen National Public Investment Systems.