Africa Climate Finance Course

Africa Climate Finance Course:
Unlocking public climate finance for
sustainable business transformation

Home > Africa Climate Finance Course

Background

IIED and partners are co-running a two-part training programme on public climate finance to support the private sector, and private sector investment, across sub-Saharan Africa. The course will take a particular focus on the opportunities and ways to access public climate finance, especially the world’s largest climate fund – the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The public climate finance will help grow the knowledge and capabilities of leaders to support the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy. The world faces a triple and interconnected crisis: the climate emergency, rapid biodiversity destruction and entrenched poverty. The next ten years are crucial to prepare, adapt and transform our societies, economies and ecosystems. The public sector alone cannot finance solutions to this triple crisis. Globally, US$10 trillion of investment is needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and annual adaptation costs in developing countries are estimated at $70 billion. This figure is expected to reach $140-300 billion in 2030 and $280-500 billion in 2050.

The private sector has a defining role in both mitigating the potential damages brought by a carbon-intensive, ‘business-as-usual’ global economy and finding new, innovative and catalytic approaches for adapting to a changed climate. IIED, FSD Africa (FSDA), Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leaderships (CISL) and East and Southern African Management Institute have joined forces for a five-year project to provide a better understanding of how it’s possible to shift from business-as-usual to ‘business-unusual’ investments that can utilise public climate finance to tackle the biggest challenge of our time.

What is IIED doing?

Between 6th-10th December, IIED are offering a course on how to access public climate finance to support the private sector, and private sector investment, across Sub-Saharan Africa – with a particular focus on the GCF and its access requirements.

Participants will be guided by a series of expert guest speakers from a range of donor and private sector institutions that guide participants as they work through the practical steps to move from an climate investment idea to a bankable climate finance proposal.

The programme will introduce delegates to the major concepts in public climate finance, and present the challenge of attracting private investment, especially for adaptation, within the African context. It will also provide an overview of the landscape of public and private climate financing opportunities to support the African private sector climate action today. Lastly, the course will walk participants through the steps to take when developing bankable climate finance proposal, including:

After the course, delegates will:

Better understand the opportunities public climate finance plays in addressing the barriers to private sector investment and enabling projects in climate change;
Understand how to navigate different opportunities for international public sector climate finance;
Progress or develop new ideas for climate mitigation and adaptation investments and/or enabling environment projects;
Advance knowledge on what is required for ‘bankable’ investments for international climate finance versus ‘business as usual’ investments;
Understand what new policies, procedures, skills and personal may be required to 'navigate complexity and systems thinking' – in order to practically deliver and manage these climate finance investments;
Identify new partnerships opportunities for unlocking climate finance.

Agenda summary

Day 1:

The triple crisis: why we need to transform business and finance | Barriers and financing solutions: Why regulators, financial institutions and business need to consider climate-positive regulation, investments and products; and barriers to investments and the role that climate finance can play in overcoming them.

Day 2:

Pathways to access | Bankable climate finance (part 1): The motivation for why and how to access climate finance, partnership opportunities and key national stakeholders; and key country and market climate investment priorities and how to assess them.

Day 3:

Bankable climate finance (parts 2 and 3): Development of scientific justification for investment case; combining justifications together into a logical theory of change – explaining needs to investment impact.

Day 4:

Institutional change (parts 1 and 2): How institutions may need to change and strengthen their investment cases via active management of climate investment; and assessments and management of environmental and social risks.

Day 5:

Institutional change (part 3) | Climate finance pitches: How to address and integrate socially transformative elements into investment cases and organisations; and make a final pitch on a climate finance investment case.