Guatemala

Guatemala is the largest economy in Central America. Despite relatively high economic growth during the last decade, progress in reducing inequality and poverty has been limited. National income depends on agriculture, the export of a few commodities and remittances from Guatemalans overseas. It is also highly vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather conditions and faces persistent challenges around the loss of natural resources, deforestation, increased soil and water pollution, and growing waste levels, all with significant socio‑economic impacts.

Against this background, the Government launched its Low-Emission Development Strategy (LEDS) as its strategy for climate change mitigation and developed an Environmental Fiscal Strategy that envisages a set of fiscal instruments to improve pricing of environmentally harmful economic activities and adjustments to public procurement to reach national climate change and sustainability objectives. In addition, the General Policy Plan 2024-2028 explicitly mentions advancing the green economy as a framework to bolster environmental protection in a socially inclusive and economically viable way.

Guatemala’s green economic transformation has been advanced through strong collaboration across national counterparts, including the Ministry of Public Finance, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Economy, the President’s Secretariat of Planning and Programming, and the Ministry of Labour.