£50 million of existing funds allocated to boost investment in renewables

28 May 2015 07:13 PM

The UK government has committed £50 million of existing funding to the Climate Development Finance Facility (CDFF) to help developing countries tackle climate change.

The £50 million will be allocated from existing funding that has already been committed to the International Climate Fund (ICF) to reduce poverty by helping developing countries to take up low carbon growth and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The CDFF is being set up to encourage private sector investment into renewable energy projects in developing countries where project finance is limited, costly, and time-consuming.

The project was developed by the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance – a global platform that brings together governments and major investors to identify and tackle the barriers to low carbon investment.

Notes to editors

• The UK is providing £3.87 billion through the International Climate Fund from 2011 to 2016.

• The Climate Development Finance Facility is an innovative cradle-to-grave finance facility for medium to large scale (between 25-75MW) renewable energy projects in developing countries. It will provide development funding to new renewable energy projects, funding to support them during construction phase and a re-financing facility to attract institutional investors such as pension funds. By combining the several stages of investment finance into one facility, the CDFF provides a cradle-to-grave public-private financing solution. It was developed under the Global Innovation Lab by FMO, the Dutch Development Bank.

• The Global Innovation Lab is an initiative that brings together a small number of senior private and public sector actors to identify, design, and support the piloting of new climate finance instruments with the aim of unlocking billions of dollars of private investment for climate change mitigation and adaption in developing countries.

• The UK has been leading the development of the Lab alongside the US and Germany, and the initiative was launched in London last year. Other donors who have joined the Lab are France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Japan.