Stock picture of solar panels
Jonathan Taylor, EIB Vice-President responsible for Climate Action, joined public and private sector leaders at the International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s flagship event “Creating Markets in Climate Business: Mobilizing Private Sector Solutions”, to debate how the public sector can support climate-smart solutions, from clean energy and climate-smart agribusiness to climate-smart cities and green finance. The event took place on the margins of the 2018 WBG/IMF Spring Meetings.
The IFC’s event gathered business executives, financiers, and regulators, to showcase practical solutions to the challenges of growing climate business investment in emerging markets. The event also provided a platform for IFC partners to share their vision on the global agenda for climate-smart development.
ICF Chief Executive Officer, Philippe Le Houérou reminded the audience of the role of the EIB as a pioneer issuer of Green Bonds eleven years ago. The EIB is still today the largest multilateral provider of climate finance worldwide with over EUR 21bn raised across 11 currencies with its Green Bonds since 2007.
Jonathan Taylor also stressed the need for Multilateral Development Banks to agree on a common definition of the Green bonds in order to be able to share common understanding and principles, and to be able to assess and evaluate them with a harmonised approach.
VP Taylor reaffirmed EIB objectives for green finance: “The Bank has pledged to provide USD 100bn for climate action in the five-year period to 2020, and is on track to deliver on its target.” The Bank’s commitment comes in support of the Paris Agreement and is expected to attract additional investment from private and public sources to deliver a total of USD 250bn climate investment by 2020.
Jonathan Taylor also underligned the role that the EU Bank needs to play in the mitigation and adaptation to climate change. “Adapting to climate change is key especially for the poorest countries because they are hit the most and the earliest. We need to do more to support them”, he said.
Finally, he highlighted the need for public and private sectors investors to team up with blended finance in order to de-risk and guarantee investment and build a larger market for climate-smart solutions.