Foreign
By Kennedy Nnamani
THE U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, has announced a follow up of programmes and targets to increase private investment in climate solutions.
The agency made this known yesterday in a statement, noting that this is even a progress on its COP26 commitment to mobilize $150 billion in climate finance by 2030.
According to the USAID, it is focusing on funding the most urgent needs in partner countries through expanding access to climate finance and increasing the number of financial institutions making climate investments.
The statement further noted that the agency has taken steps to achieve this goal by making some concrete deliverables which include a new Sustainable Banking Alliance to increase the capacity of banks based in USAID partner countries to access climate finance.
“The program will launch with pilots in Colombia and Rwanda, with an initial budget of just over $1 million.
“USAID will partner with the local banking associations as well as international climate finance organizations to build local capacity in climate risk reporting, carbon accounting across financial portfolios, and providing training on climate finance lending, such as resilient agriculture and green bonds,” the statement read.
In addition, USAID and the Millennium Challenge Corporation partner to expand work in supporting the use of green finance mechanisms across the globe.
The statement noted that the agencies’ joint efforts will target an initial small group of countries and further scale and replicate it with support from development finance institutions like the U.S. Development Finance Corporation.
“USAID will provide initial support for the development of green finance in up to five countries via public-private partnerships focused on improving the capacity and enabling conditions that accelerate the use of green finance mechanisms such as the issuance of green and blue bonds,” it noted.
Furthermore, the statement disclosed that USAID has launched the Climate Finance Investor Network, CFIN, to facilitate faster engagement with the private sector.
“The CFIN will bring together a diverse group of climate finance actors to more easily partner with USAID to accelerate investment in climate solutions through network building, partnership facilitation, and catalytic grants,” it added.
The agency therefore called on the private sector to partner to join the Network to work for a better and cleaner environment. Stakeholders can do this by visiting the partnership portal at climatelinks.org/projects/CFDA
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Tags: Kennedy Nnamani USAID
