Scaling Up The Mobilisation Of Private Finance For Climate Action In Developing Countries

This report explores evidence-based action areas to increase and accelerate the mobilisation of private finance for climate action in developing countries, and the role of international public finance providers in doing so.

This report explores evidence-based action areas to increase and accelerate the mobilisation of private finance for climate action in developing countries, and the role of international public finance providers in doing so. It draws on best-available data to provide disaggregated analysis of the sectoral, geographic and other features of private finance mobilised by public climate finance and presents key economy-wide, sector-specific, and institutional challenges to private finance mobilisation. The analysis is anchored in the context of the USD 100 billion climate finance goal, initially set for 2020 and extended to 2025, while also providing insights related to mobilising private finance for climate action in developing countries more broadly.

This report presents aggregate trends of annual climate finance provided and mobilised by developed countries for developing countries for the period 2013-2021. It includes breakdowns by climate theme, sector, financial instrument and recipient country grouping for the period 2016-2021. The report also provides key recommendations for international providers to increase financing towards adaptation and more effectively mobilise private finance for climate action, which are both important policy priorities and current bottlenecks. The recommendations in this report draw from two OECD publications on scaling up private climate finance and adaptation finance.

This report analyses current trends of adaptation finance provided and mobilised by developed countries for developing countries. It explores potential action areas for international providers to scale up funding for climate change adaptation, including by unlocking the potential of the private sector. The analysis is anchored in the context of the USD 100 billion climate finance goal, initially set for 2020 and extended to 2025, while also providing insights to the broader and longer-term objective of supporting developing countries' ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change.

Significant investments are needed to support the global transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient future. Current finance flows fall short of global financing needs, and massive scaling up is needed to unlock additional financial resources and foster a sustainable investment pathway. Overcoming barriers to private sector investments is critical, and international climate finance can play a catalytic role in this regard. National development banks (NDBs) have a unique role in this context, both complementing and catalyzing private sector players. This publication discusses the unique role that NDBs could play in scaling up private financing for climate change mitigation projects through the intermediation of international and national public climate finance in their respective local credit markets and the conditions that would be needed for them to be most effective. It draws from experiences in international climate finance and best practices, processes, and products of NDBs within the Latin American and Caribbean region.

There is widespread recognition that climate finance needs to be scaled up from its current levels. However, there is no clear view on how developed countries can efficiently and effectively mobilise further climate finance to meet the needs of developing countries. Developed countries have committed to mobilise USD 100 bn per year of climate finance for developing countries by 2020 from a variety of sources. These include both public and private finance, thus the private sector is likely to play a significant role in the mobilisation of climate finance to meet this commitment. This paper explores how scale-up and replication of effective climate finance interventions efficiently mobilise private climate finance. The interventions examined in the paper have already been, or are being, scaled up or replicated. Scaling-up and replication of such climate finance interventions could be an efficient way to increase the private sector's interest in mobilisation of climate finance, and thus to make progress towards the USD 100 bn per year goal by 2020. The paper draws lessons from selected mitigation and available adaptation case studies at project- and programme-levels as well as from experience with international climate funds. The paper examines three key aspects needed to scale up and replicate climate finance. The first is the institutional structures and decision-making framework of the climate finance source, its aims, the scale at which it operates and how barriers to scaling-up and replication have been addressed. Second, the paper explores how demonstrating effective low-carbon, climate-resilient technologies and systems can facilitate scale-up and replication. Third, the paper discusses the influence of policies to enhance domestic enabling environments for scaling-up and replication.

In spite of the climate finance commitment by the developed countries to mobilise jointly 100 billion USD per year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries from a wide variety of sources, there is no clear agreement on the types of funds that might count as mobilised by developed countries and what private finance flows could be considered as mobilised for climate action in developing countries. This study identifies ten considerations that are key to estimating mobilised private climate finance. An example methodology is proposed for tracking mobilised private investment and the methodology is tested on three Nordic case studies. Through the further refinement of methodologies, it should be possible to develop common systems for M&E of finance enabling a clearer understanding of the finance landscape and the effectiveness of interventions for mobilising private investment.

There is strong evidence showing the urgent need for scaling-up climate finance to mitigate greenhouse gases in line with the 2°C target, and to support adaptation to safeguard the international community from the consequences of a changing climate. While public actors have a responsibility to deploy climate finance, it is clear that the contribution from the private sector needs to be significant. Consequently, a strong public commitment is needed to engage with the private sector and ensure climate finance is leveraged and deployed effectively. In this context, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are a promising avenue to contribute to climate finance delivery. PPPs provide frameworks to ensure public leadership and accountability in tackling climate change, while enabling the ownership of certain components of climate finance to be transferred to private hands.

Global investment to achieve the Paris Agreement’s temperature and adaptation goals requires immediate actions—first and foremost—on climate policies. Policies should be accompanied by commensurate financing flows to close the large financing gap globally, and in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) in particular. This note discusses potential ways to mobilize domestic and foreign private sector capital in climate finance, as a complement to climate-related policies, by mitigating relevant risks and constraints through public-private partnerships involving multilateral, regional, and national development banks. It also overviews the role the IMF can play in the process.

This note outlines a scheme for mobilizing financing to help developing countries confront the challenges posed by climate change. The idea is to create a “Green Fund” with the capacity to raise resources on a scale commensurate with the Copenhagen Accord ($100 billion a year by 2020). By providing a unified resource mobilization framework, with up-front agreement on burdensharing and the capacity to meet the financing needs identified at Copenhagen, the Green Fund could facilitate progress toward a binding global agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and allow developing countries to begin scaling up their climate change responses without delay. To achieve the necessary scale, the Green Fund would use an initial capital injection by developed countries in the form of reserve assets, which could include SDRs, to leverage resources from private and official investors by issuing low-cost “green bonds” in global capital markets. Contributors could agree to scale their equity stakes in proportion to their IMF quota shares, making these the “key” for burden sharing among the contributing countries. Since much of the financing would need to be provided ultimately as grants or highly concessional loans, the fund would also need to mobilize subsidy resources from contributors. Governments would likely require new sources of fiscal revenue for this purpose, including from carbon taxes and expanded carbon-trading schemes, which may take time to put in place. In the interim, the Green Fund could cover its subsidy needs from bond proceeds, interest income on its reserve asset capital base, and/or revenues from other innovative international tax schemes. Resources mobilized by the Green Fund could be channeled through existing climate funds, or via newly created special-purpose disbursement facilities. We are not proposing that the IMF itself would create, finance, or manage the Green Fund. The ideas set out in this note are being offered purely for consideration by the international community, and as a contribution to the broader public debate.