Financing sustainable infrastructure in emerging markets
We’re piloting a new approach to mobilizing climate finance in emerging markets.
Trillions of dollars are needed to support countries in meeting their commitments to the Paris Agreement, and private finance has a critical role to play.
Existing climate finance flows to fund clean energy projects in emerging market countries are a fraction of what is needed: Lower-middle and low-income countries received just 5% and 0.3%, respectively, of global clean energy transition investment from 2011 to 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic decreased these levels even further, with clean energy investment in developing markets dropping 20% in 2020, even as it increased more than 20% in high-income markets.
It’s more important than ever for private capital to join public finance in supporting clean energy and sustainable infrastructure investment. CFLI is focused on creating investment-friendly business environments and robust pipelines of bankable sustainable infrastructure opportunities in emerging markets. To drive this work forward, we are launching a series of country-level capital mobilization initiatives.
CFLI Country Pilots
CFLI Country Pilots are multi-year efforts that align public and private resources around a narrow set of high-priority, sector-specific opportunities in emerging market countries, with the aim of creating lasting access to rapidly growing offshore pools of sustainable capital. Each Country Pilot convenes domestic and international financial institutions in collaboration with the national government and the multilateral community to strengthen the local policy enabling environment and mobilize capital into bankable sustainable infrastructure opportunities.
Through these pilot programs, CFLI is taking a localized approach that is tailored to the specific energy and infrastructure needs, policy environment, and capital market in each country. The CFLI report Unlocking Private Climate Finance in Emerging Markets: Private Sector Considerations for Policymakers will be used as a starting point for this work.
Our strategy
Our objectives
Near Term
1. Catalyze immediate investment aligned with a pilot country’s NDCs, including financing one to three signature projects or investment vehicles vital to each country’s energy transition ambitions in the first year.
Long Term
1. Align influential financial institutions on sector-specific financing priorities and raise ambition for acting with speed and at scale.
2. Identify one to three upstream policy priorities to facilitate private capital flows and align new technical assistance resources from bilateral and multilateral partners to support the country government on these issues.
2. Build the business case for strengthening enabling environments to scale up pipelines of bankable climate finance opportunities.
How it works
First, local and international financial institutions and corporates work with key government and multilateral partners to identify climate finance priorities. Then participants and partners work on two parallel tracks – mobilizing capital and strengthening the enabling environment – to scale up climate investment.
Partners
All Country Pilots are supported by a vibrant partnership across leading global actors on climate finance, sustainable infrastructure, and just transition.
For more information about CFLI Country Pilots, contact the CFLI Secretariat.