Green Banks: Scaling Up Investments in Clean Energy and Energy Access in Developing Countries

Although we have seen progress in decreasing the number of people without access to energy, the gap between required and actual investment to achieve universal access by 2030 is widening year after year, while committed climate and development finance often goes unspent due to lack of capacity. At the same time, significant opportunities exist in Africa in distributed renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy access due to improved technology and business methods.

Green Banks can help tap into these opportunities and catalyse the much-needed investment into low-carbon and sustainable development sectors. Green Banks are specialized financial facilities designed to grow sustainable investment, typically with a focus on climate finance and on “crowding-in” private investment through innovative financial instruments. These instruments are specifically designed to blend public and private finance, to mitigate and spread/share risk, and improve the risk-return profile of projects that are commercially viable, but not yet “bankable”.