(MENAFN- Edelman) NEW YORK, NY – September 26, 2024 – Today, BlackRock and ALTÉRRA hosted a high-level roundtable event on blended finance, convening officials from over 20 governments, development finance institutions, philanthropies, and institutional investors, including existing catalytic and institutional investors in the Climate Finance Partnership (CFP), to discuss opportunities and challenges to driving greater investment into climate infrastructure in emerging markets and how innovative public-private partnerships and blended finance structures can mobilize institutional capital at scale. CFP is BlackRock’s flagship public-private blended finance vehicle focused on investing in climate infrastructure across emerging markets.
Following CFP’s success, BlackRock will work together with ALTÉRRA and several existing CFP catalytic investors to develop and implement BlackRock’s next blended finance emerging markets strategy investing in climate infrastructure opportunities. BlackRock will also consult with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), UK charity Shell Foundation, and the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) on the strategy.
ALTÉRRA, the world’s largest private investment vehicle for climate finance, at COP28 committed US$350 million to BlackRock’s emerging markets climate infrastructure platform. US$100 million will be co-invested alongside CFP and US$250 million is committed as anchor catalytic capital to the forthcoming emerging markets climate infrastructure strategy. ALTÉRRA aims to address the need for more ambitious funding models for the climate transition, particularly in developing countries.
Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, commented: “BlackRock is proud to partner with leading governments, philanthropies, and institutional investors on innovative public-private partnerships that mobilize private capital at scale to make critical infrastructure investments. The success of the Climate Finance Partnership demonstrates the powerful role that blended finance can play in accelerating investment in emerging markets climate infrastructure.”
Majid Al-Suwaidi, CEO of ALTÉRRA, said: “ALTÉRRA’s catalytic capital is playing a vital role in helping to incentivize further investment from other partners into the emerging markets climate infrastructure strategy. We are not just investing in climate; we are changing how and why we invest in climate. ALTÉRRA was created to challenge the status quo, and these commitments show our intentions to push boundaries. Our structure also gives us a unique advantage which helps accelerate progress towards delivering meaningful climate impact and drives strong economic return.”
Participants in today’s roundtable includes senior executives and representatives from leading institutional investors, development banks, and philanthropies, as well as government officials. This included several of CFP’s partners mentioned above, as well as existing catalytic investors the French Development Agency (AFD) and Grantham Environmental Trust.
At the event, BlackRock gave a presentation on CFP, including its investments and their impact. Originally conceived at the One Planet Summit in 2018 in partnership with AFD, Germany’s KfW Development Bank, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), CFP announced a US$673 million oversubscribed closing at COP26. Since then, the fund has invested a majority of its capital into a diversified portfolio of wind, utility solar, and distributed solar assets across Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. This includes investments in the Lake Turkana Wind Project, the largest operating wind farm in Africa; Cleantech Global, a solar energy developer in the Philippines; Chow Energy, a C&I solar power operator and developer in Thailand; Brasol, a Brazilian energy transition company; and Ditrolic Energy, a developer of utility-scale solar assets throughout Asia-Pacific. Going forward, CFP will continue to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars in private capital into emerging market climate infrastructure investment opportunities.
The CFP team estimates that its existing portfolio of wind and solar assets collectively could add 1,000+ MW of renewable power generation capacity to emerging markets grids as it matures. In June 2024, the team published its inaugural impact report.
Additional statements by partner organizations
Andrea Hauser, Member of the Management Committee, KfW, commented: "I am proud of the progress we have made with the Climate Finance Partnership. Our collaborative efforts have demonstrated how blended finance initiatives can mobilize institutional capital into emerging markets. The CFP platform has proven to be an important public-private partnership that is driving climate impact and economic development in these regions. I am encouraged to see steps being taken to scale CFP’s climate impact and mobilize significantly more institutional capital into emerging markets.”
UCHIDA Makoto, Senior Managing Director, JBIC, stated: “The Climate Finance Partnership has been successful in mobilizing private capital to emerging economies, supporting the scaling up of their energy transition. We expect the CFP to keep playing the powerful role in the energy transition investments of the Global South, and JBIC is delighted to be in part of it.”
Woochong Um, CEO of GEAPP, said: “Collective action and pooling resources are the key to unlocking the full potential of climate finance and infrastructure investment in emerging markets. Through innovative public-private partnerships like the Climate Finance Partnership, together we can demonstrate the value within emerging markets to large institutional investors with the view to ultimately scaling investment into traditionally underfinanced regions where the opportunities are significant and paving the way for a rapid and equitable energy transition.”
Amos Hochstein, Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor for Energy and Investment, The White House, noted: “Catalyzing infrastructure investments is critical to combating the climate crisis globally, empowering both emerging markets as well as developed economies.”
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