"We can't solve climate change without private finance. The GCF and other climate funds are pivotal to leverage private sector capital and CMIA channels the private sector voice to provide solutions that are workable, bankable and scalable."
Margaret-Ann Splawn, Working Group Co-Chair
GCF and Climate Finance
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is the world’s largest climate fund.
The Green Climate Fund was conceptualised at the Cancun COP in 2009 and fully operational since 2015, is the largest climate finance fund in the world – targeting the commitment of funding flows of US$100 billion per year with all pools of finance. Its specific mandate is to encourage and facilitate private investment in climate related activities. GCF aims to go much further than other public climate finance institutions in leveraging private capital for mitigation and adaptation, and using its own risk bearing capacity to enable innovation and funding at scale.
The GCF has already gone some way towards integrating the private sector into its activities. Several of the institutions which have been approved to receive funding directly from the GCF are commercial entities. However, more private sector national and regional entities have become accredited over the last few years too.
But the GCF needs to take more action to reach out to the business and investment communities. The GCF 27th Board meeting adopted the Updated Strategic Plan for the GCF 2020-2023 which includes a strategic priority of ‘catalysing private sector finance at scale’. CMIA holds one of two Active Private Sector Observer seats on the board of the GCF. Through its observer, CMIA has a unique ability to give the board direct feedback from its membership on key issues that will impact how successfully the GCF interacts with private actors.
In addition, CMIA is a Private Sector Observer at the World Bank’s $8 billion Climate Investment Funds (CIF). CMIA represents the private sector at the $5.4 billion Clean Technology Fund, a funding window of the CIF, which empowers transformation in developing countries by providing resources to scale up low carbon technologies with significant potential for long term greenhouse gas emissions savings. Founded in 2008, CIF is the only multilateral climate fund to work exclusively with multilateral development banks (MDB) as implementing agencies
The GCF and Climate Finance Working Group coordinates CMIA’s vital activities as a conduit for information flow between the business and financial communities at the board and Secretariat of the GCF, by defining priority concerns of the private sector and gathering input from industry. At the same time, the Working Group takes the lead in raising awareness among CMIA members and the wider community of the activities of the GCF, CIF, and other climate funds and the potential opportunities it creates for private actors.
This working group is chaired by Margaret-Ann Splawn and Alexandra Tracy.
