The Carbon-Free Regions Handbook: Finance

The Carbon-Free Regions Handbook: Finance is a guide for regional governments on organizing and delivering financial solutions to enable low-carbon transitions. It outlines strategies for increasing capital availability, overcoming up-front costs, creating market incentives, and reducing procurement costs for clean energy assets.

• Regional governments can increase capital availability for low-carbon projects through Public-Private Partnerships, specifically Green Investment Banks (GIBs), which are designed to fill market gaps and leverage private investment using limited public resources.
• To address the 'split incentive' in building energy upgrades where landlords do not benefit from efficiency gains paid for by tenants, the guide recommends 'green leasing' (or energy-aligned leasing) to share costs and benefits between both parties.
• Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs allow building owners to fund energy-efficiency upgrades based on real estate values rather than credit, with repayments made through property tax assessments. This model is active in over 20 US states, with residential programs in three states unlocking a $5 billion market.
• Governments can stimulate private sector action by putting a price on carbon through carbon taxes or greenhouse gas cap-and-trade policies, which make polluting more expensive and create market conditions for carbon-saving solutions.
• Regional governments can lower the cost of procuring assets like electric vehicles and solar installations by using reverse auctions, where sellers compete to provide the lowest price, or by organizing aggregate purchasing programs.

APA

RMI (2018). The Carbon-Free Regions Handbook: Finance. https://rmi.org/resources/carbon-free-regions-handbook-finance/

Chicago

RMI. The Carbon-Free Regions Handbook: Finance. 2018. https://rmi.org/resources/carbon-free-regions-handbook-finance/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=The Carbon-Free Regions Handbook: Finance |date=27 August 2018 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/carbon-free-regions-handbook-finance/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2018carbonfree, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{The Carbon-Free Regions Handbook: Finance}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2018}, month = aug, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/carbon-free-regions-handbook-finance/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }