Climate Finance Accelerator Programme

Challenge

The Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA) is a technical assistance programme funded by the UK Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero as part of its efforts to help emerging markets deliver their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. 

Emerging market countries face common challenges in accessing funding at scale. Proposals in the early stages of development, for example, can find it dificult to access specialist capital market practitioners who can connect them to investor communities. Meanwhile, the local policy landscape – including regulatory regimes – can prove unconducive to entrepreneurship, leaving projects weighed down by bureaucracy and lacking support and guidance. 

Following a successful pilot programme in 2017, Ricardo is helping to deliver a four-year CFA programme (2020-2024) that provides specialist assistance to participating countries, helping them establish a steady flow of ‘investment ready’ low-carbon projects. Countries now engaged in the CFA include Colombia, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Türkiye, Peru, Egypt, Pakistan, Vietnam and Uganda. 

The programme is being delivered with in-country local partners and as part of an alliance led by PwC. 

Approach

As ‘country lead’, our teams are bringing together national, provincial and municipal policymakers and project developers to meet with expert mentors from international finance and banking to gain advice, capture synergies and share lessons learnt.

Using workshops, technical forums and one-to-one consultation, our experts are helping participants to:

• Identify low carbon projects that can help nationally determined contributions (NDC).
• Discuss initiatives with private financiers to prioritise financing propositions.
• Develop the commercial structure of projects to the stage where they can seek primary finance in local capital markets.

For projects of a certain scale and from relevant sectors (such as renewable energy, buildings, transport), participants can also explore refinancing projects into green bonds and similar investment instruments that are attractive to global capital markets.

The Ricardo team also includes experts who are providing support around NDC implementation, energy and transport financing.

Outcomes

The CFA is designed to support the development of investable low-carbon project pipelines through the first two stages of the climate finance investment chain.

Based on a collaborative, capacity-building approach, the aim is to develop domestic knowledge and skillsets to create a steady flow of projects and to help nurture a governance and policy environment that facilitates new ideas and initiatives.

Participating nations benefit from expert technical assistance with proposal development, the creation of knowledge networks between investors and policy-makers; and enhanced capacity to access green finance in both public and private sectors.

In 2017, Nigeria took part in the pilot CFA and saw 15 renewable energy and climate-smart agriculture projects reviewed by a team of local experts, supported by Ricardo and specialists from international banks and asset managers who could assist with advice on strengthening their proposals.