Climate Policy Initiative will be hosting or speaking at several sessions during the World Bank Group’s Innovate4Climate at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre Singapore, beginning June 4th. Innovate4Climate is the World Bank Group’s flagship climate change event on transformative climate action. It brings together government, multilateral, business, banking, and finance leaders to accelerate action on financing climate-resilient development and to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Blended Finance Solutions for Clean Energy Transition in Southeast Asia

June 4th at 14:00

Room: Simpor Jr 4911

The transition to clean energy in Southeast Asia remains one of the world’s most important development challenges.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), energy demand in Southeast Asia — which accounts for 640 million people across 14 countries and territories — is growing at twice the pace of China. However, as emerging economies, Southeast Asian countries prioritize accessibility and affordability when making energy choices to meet this demand. As the “path most traveled”, fossil fuels thus continue to dominate the region’s generation mix, accounting for more than 75 percent of the energy supply in 2016. This is a result of both policy challenges, as well as a host of finance barriers that prevented private investments from making a much-needed leap in the renewable energy market in Southeast Asia.

Blended finance instruments are tools that make use of public/philanthropic funds to mobilize multiples of additional private capital for sustainable, or develop-oriented objectives. Around the world, blended finance offers more than USD 1 trillion in investment opportunities for clean energy (Tonkonogy et al., 2018), and based on recent CPI analysis, these opportunities extend to the financial conditions, risks and barriers to clean energy investment currently faced by Southeast Asian countries.

This workshop at Innovate4Climate, facilitated by Ms. Mahua Acharya, Asia Director and Senior Advisor will discuss blended finance as a solution to the energy transition challenges in Southeast Asia by facilitating a dialogue between policy makers, financial institutions, and other experts in the sector on making use of public/philanthropic funds to mobilize additional private capital. This 60-minute panel will serve as a knowledge platform to share success stories of blended finance and deliberate on the role of each player in the ecosystem.

Speakers:

• Surya Bagchi, Global Head of Project & Export Finance, Standard Chartered Bank
• Fenella Aouane, Principal Green Finance Specialist, Global Green Growth Institute
• Anouj Mehta, Principal Specialist, Southeast Asia, Asian Development Bank
• Moderator: Mahua Acharya, Asia Director & Senior Advisor, Climate Policy Initiative

From Idea to Impact: Scaling up Finance Solutions for Sustainable Cities

June 5th at 10:45

Room: Simpor Jr 4911

Cities around the world have made bold commitments towards a sustainable future. To mobilize the finance needed for these commitments, policy makers, the business community, philanthropic actors, and all classes of investors will need to coordinate to implement and scale innovative sustainable investment models.

This workshop will focus on real solutions that are working to scale up investment for climate projects in cities, such as sustainable transit, cooling, cleaner air, and more. It will bring together entrepreneurs who are leading these solutions, investors, and cities policy and finance experts to discuss current opportunities, persistent barriers, and best practices for scaling up finance for sustainable cities.

Organized by the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance, a public-private initiative of over 60 expert institutions to identify, develop, and launch innovative finance instruments for action on climate change. In five years, the Lab has launched 35 instruments that have mobilized $1.6 bn in sustainable investment.

Speakers:

• Silke Karcher, Head of Division, EU Climate and Energy Policy, European Climate Initiative, Carbon Markets, German Federal Ministry of Environment
• Shilpa Patel, Director, Mission Investing, ClimateWorks Foundation
• Cedrick Tandong, CEO, Three Wheels United, representing 2018 Lab instrument “Financing for Auto-Rickshaws”
• Daniel Magallón, CEO, Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE), representing 2019 Lab instrument “Cooling as a Service”
• Moderator: Barbara Buchner, Executive Director, CPI and Lab Secretariat

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In addition, Dr. Barbara Buchner will be speaking on the plenary panel for “Green Bonds Asia Plenary on The Role of Regulators” on June 4th at 11:00 and participating in Live Judging Innovate4Climate’s Pitch Hub June 4th at 3:30.

Find out more about Innovate4Climate here.