IADB’s proposals involve lenders using public money to buy up renewable energy loans in poor countries
An innovative plan to use public money to back renewable energy loans in the developing world could liberate cash from the private sector for urgently needed climate finance.
Avinash Persaud, a special adviser on climate change to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), who developed the proposals, believes the plan could drive tens of billions of new investment in the fledgling green economy in poorer countries within a few years, and could provide the bulk of the $1.3tn in annual climate finance promised to the developing world by 2035.
“This could be an engine for green growth, and produce the trillions needed for climate finance in the future,” he told the Guardian. “It could be a transformation.”
His ideas will be set out in detail at a UN meeting in Germany this week, kicking off negotiations for the Cop30 climate summit that will take place in Brazil this November against a worrying global background for the discussions.
