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Unlocking long-term scale: Rethinking RBF for sustainable mini-grids
The document argues that current RBF programmes often prioritize short-term connection numbers over long-term business viability, creating 'cliff-edge risks' and deterring commercial investors. It proposes a four-pillar approach: aligning impact metrics with commercial viability (e.g., rewarding energy usage and productive-use connections), adjusting disbursement schedules to support capital raises, introducing risk-mitigation instruments for macroeconomic and operational risks, and fostering ecosystem-wide coordination between governments, funders, and investors.
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Document type: Research paper
Mainstreaming geothermal energy in Central and Eastern Europe: Key takeaways from the Central European Energy Conference
The document outlines the potential for geothermal energy to decarbonize district heating in Central and Eastern Europe, identifying financing and risk as the primary bottlenecks. It highlights national strategies in Hungary, Croatia, Poland, and Slovakia, while advocating for the adoption of next-generation technologies and a unified regional voice to influence EU policy.
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Document type: Briefing
INSTRUMENT ANALYSIS
The Price Risk Facility (PRF), developed by Agtuall, is an insurance mechanism that bundles price protection into agricultural loans to stabilize smallholder farmer incomes and reduce credit risk for lenders. While India has government schemes like PMFBY for production risks, price risk remains largely unaddressed. The PRF uses a grant-funded risk pool to catalyze insurer participation and aims to scale from current pilots to insuring USD 500 million annually within three years. The facility intends to transition from pure price insurance to comprehensive revenue insurance covering both yield and price risks.
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Document type: Report
THE CASE FOR FINANCING SUSTAINABLE AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS IN LAC
The report highlights that agrifood systems in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are major emission sources but receive only 8% of climate finance. It proposes blended finance as a mechanism to mitigate risks—such as lack of credit history and misaligned investment terms—to unlock private capital. The text notes that 59 blended finance transactions totaling $7 billion have occurred in the region, primarily in Brazil and Colombia, with a significant focus on agroforestry.
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Document type: Report
The State of Green Banks 2025
The report examines the role of green banks in bridging the USD 7.4 trillion annual climate funding gap. It identifies four main structures: standalone de novo banks, enhanced public development banks (PDBs), green facilities within PDBs, and country platforms. While standalone banks are more common in advanced economies, EMDEs frequently utilize green facilities as transitional mechanisms. The report emphasizes that success depends on financial, environmental, and political sustainability, and proposes three international support options: a new design initiative, expanding the FiCS Innovation Lab, or forming a coalition of existing initiatives.
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Document type: Report
How to Finance India’s First 10,000 Zero-Emission Trucks
The report identifies four primary risks—product, customer, operational, and residual value—that hinder the financing of zero-emission trucks (ZETs) in India. It argues that deploying the first 10,000 ZETs is a critical step to demonstrate viability and build market confidence. To achieve this, the document advocates for a collaborative risk-management framework involving original equipment manufacturers, fleet operators, charge point operators, financiers, and development finance institutions to lower default probabilities and distribute potential losses.
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Document type: Report
Quebec must not give in to political pressure on flooding maps
The Canadian Climate Institute urges the Quebec government to implement new flood maps and construction regulations despite opposition from municipalities and developers. The author argues that the cost of inaction—estimated between $70 million and $210 million in annual losses—far outweighs the potential decrease in property values, noting that homes in very high-risk zones are likely to suffer several hundred thousand dollars in damages over the next 25 years.
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Document type: Statement
Climate Finance Roadmaps
The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) proposes a structured approach to create Climate Finance Roadmaps that match the risk profiles of specific regions and sectors with the preferences and capacities of public and private investors. The framework moves from identifying financing gaps and assessing investment risks to determining the necessary capital mix and estimating future finance flows. It aims to provide actionable guidance for policymakers and capital allocators to mobilize finance at scale, particularly in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) and underserved sectors like agriculture and industry.
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Document type: Guide
Finance for Sustainable Development Program Concept note
The FSD Program addresses the funding gap for the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals by shifting focus from the supply side of finance to the demand side. By analyzing firm-level investment decisions in low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs), the program identifies the enabling conditions and blended-finance instruments—such as guarantees and risk mitigation—necessary to make sustainable projects attractive to private investors. This micro-level evidence is then used to inform macro-level global and regional policy frameworks.
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Document type: Report
Landscape of Guarantees for Climate Finance in EMDEs
The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) mapped 52 cross-border guarantee instruments from 34 entities, including MDBs, DFIs, ECAs, and specialized institutions. The analysis reveals that while guarantees can mobilize 6-25 times more financing than loans, the current landscape is fragmented, predominantly focused on debt and commercial risks, and largely climate-agnostic. Most guarantees target middle-income countries, with a notable focus on Africa. The report identifies a lack of climate-exclusive guarantees and limited equity investment coverage, recommending further research into the cost, duration, and additionality of these instruments to help meet the estimated USD 2.4 trillion annual requirement for the green transition in EMDEs (excluding China).
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Document type: Report
A Sole Purpose Doctrine for NATO Nuclear Forces: Examining Unilateral Declarations
The document explores using unilateral declarations to reduce nuclear risks, specifically proposing a 'sole purpose' doctrine for NATO nuclear forces—limiting their role to deterring or responding to nuclear attacks. It analyzes the legal nature of such declarations, historical precedents like the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, and five potential pathways for NATO to implement this shift, ranging from high-level statements to the removal of forward-deployed gravity bombs. The authors note that such a move would require deep alliance consensus and would be complicated by current tensions with Russia, which views tactical nuclear weapons as a "competitive advantage."
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Document type: Briefing
Proposal for a Global Credit Guarantee Facility
The document proposes a Global Credit Guarantee Facility (GCGF) to address the disparity in capital costs for renewable energy, which are on average 7x higher in developing economies than in developed ones. It outlines three funding scenarios—Conservative, Moderate, and Optimistic—ranging from USD 660 million to USD 4.1 billion in capital, with potential debt mobilization leverage up to 250x. For a sample of 40 countries, the GCGF could reduce risk premia by 3%-6% and improve credit ratings by 2-6 notches.
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Document type: Research paper
Proposal for a Global Credit Guarantee Facility (GCGF)
The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) proposes a Global Credit Guarantee Facility (GCGF) to address the high cost of capital for renewable energy in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), where debt costs are on average 7x higher than in developed economies. The GCGF would act as a trust fund providing partial guarantees to mitigate sovereign, off-taker, and average foreign exchange risks, while transferring political and residual FX risks to existing institutions like MIGA and TCX. CPI outlines three sizing approaches for the facility: a 'Conservative' model requiring USD 4.2 billion in funded capital, a 'Base Case' requiring USD 1.2 billion, and an 'Optimistic' model requiring USD 660 million. The paper estimates that an AAA-rated guarantor could reduce risk premiums by an average of 6% and improve credit ratings by 5-6 notches under its primary risk reduction approach.
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Document type: Research paper
Improving Local Enabling Conditions for Private Sector Climate Investments in Cities
The report identifies barriers to private urban climate investments across macro, city, and project levels, while highlighting success factors such as supportive regulatory frameworks and transparent working practices. It provides targeted recommendations for city governments, national governments, international finance institutions, and private/third sector partners to enhance project preparation, risk mitigation, and capacity development to enable bankable climate investments in emerging economies.
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Document type: Report
Improving Local Enabling Conditions for Private Sector Climate Investments in Cities
The report identifies barriers to private urban climate investment across macro, city, and project levels, and provides recommendations for city governments, public sector partners, and private/third sector entities to improve enabling conditions. It analyzes five case studies from Chile, Ecuador, India, South Africa, and Turkiye to highlight success factors such as bulk procurement, green bonds, and strategic partnerships.
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Document type: Report
Toward Accelerating Climate Finance: Forging a New Partnership between the Global South and the Global North
The document argues that current climate finance flows are insufficient to meet Paris Agreement goals, with a significant gap in EMDEs and LDCs due to high capital costs and strained public finances. It proposes that G7 countries accelerate finance through blended finance, debt-for-climate swaps, and MDB reforms. Specific recommendations include establishing a global risk mitigation facility, coordinating green industrial policies to avoid protectionism, and implementing universal disaster index insurance to reduce vulnerability in emerging economies.
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Document type: Policy brief
Climate Finance Innovation for Africa
Africa's climate finance needs are estimated at USD 250 billion annually, yet only USD 29.5 billion was mobilized in 2020. The report identifies critical barriers—financial, governance, project-level, and infrastructure-related—across the energy, transport, buildings, and AFOLU sectors. It argues that bridging this gap requires 'climate finance innovation,' defined as using financial instruments to overcome barriers in novel contexts. The document details a toolbox of solutions, including blended finance, capital market instruments like YieldCos and Green Bonds, and results-based finance, while providing case studies such as TerraFund and Acorn to demonstrate how these tools can catalyze private investment.
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Document type: Report
Biden-Xi signal opening to explore strategic stability talks
Following a November 2021 phone call between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping, the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) advocates for a shift in U.S. arms control policy toward a multilateral framework. The author suggests that progress with China can be achieved by focusing on 'strategic stability and risk reduction,' specifically proposing agreements to avoid arming cruise missiles with nuclear warheads, which would not require China to reduce its current arsenal.
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Document type: Statement
Credit Guarantee Scheme for Smallholder Coffee Producers
The Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) and Rabobank Foundation established a USD 2.25 million mechanism in Ethiopia to mitigate risk for lenders providing loans to coffee farmers for processing equipment. By guaranteeing 50% of losses from defaults, the scheme enabled over 23 cooperatives to access commercial credit, supported by technical assistance from CABI and Rabobank International Advisory Services. The document highlights the complementary roles of high-risk appetite philanthropic/DFI funds and low-risk commercial banks, while outlining the legal and pipeline requirements necessary for successful credit guarantee schemes in agriculture.
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Document type: Case study
Innovative Green Financing for Energy Access: Insights from Kenya
The document argues that public funds alone cannot meet Africa's growing energy demands, which require an estimated $120 billion annually until 2040. It advocates for 'green financing'—blending public, development, and private capital—to reduce investment risks and improve affordability. Using Kenya as a model, the brief details how instruments like Partial Risk Guarantees, concessional loans, and Feed-in Tariffs have facilitated large-scale wind and geothermal projects. It specifically encourages the European Union to leverage its development finance institutions to create risk-mitigation products and support local private sector partnerships to accelerate the continent's green transition.
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Document type: Policy brief