By Simon Jessop
LONDON, Oct 29 (Reuters) – The Green Climate Fund approved record funding for projects at its latest board meeting and aims to scale up the amount of private capital it can mobilise for every dollar it invests, its executive director told Reuters on Thursday.
The world’s biggest multilateral climate investment fund approved $1.97 billion for 21 projects, taking total funding in the year to a record $3.2 billion, Mafalda Duarte said, including $682 million for six private-sector initiatives.
The approvals come ahead of the COP31 climate talks in Turkey in early November and against a fractious political backdrop, with richer countries reluctant to commit more money as they face other financial and political pressures.
As the fund prepares for its third replenishment round, Duarte said a first-ever policy allowing contributions from non-sovereign and alternative sources could broaden its funding base beyond national governments.
The fund has historically mobilised $3 of additional resources for every $1 it invests, and $4.5 for its private-sector projects. Although that rose to $9 last year, Duarte said there was further to go.
“We should be talking about multipliers that are higher than 10 for each dollar of GCF resources,” Duarte said, adding that she was being “very conservative”.
The approvals on Thursday take the fund’s total investments to $22.3 billion across 379 projects, and $86.4 billion once co-financing is included.
To help encourage more money to move, Duarte said the fund was developing co-investment platforms, where sovereign and non-sovereign investors could team up in particular sectors, projects and markets.
Looking ahead to COP31, Duarte said the fund had demand for funding of more than $11 billion and she was hoping to see a “strong signal of political support and commitment towards a very strong replenishment”.
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
