Scaling up Energy Efficiency Financing: Lessons Learned from the Climate Investment Funds

Since 2008, the $8.3 billion Climate Investment Funds (CIF) has been leading efforts to empower transformations in the energy, climate resilience, transport, and forestry sectors. CIF concessional financing offers flexibility to test new business models and approaches, build track records in unproven markets, and boost investor confidence to unlock additional finance from other sources, including the private sector, the governments, and the multilateral development banks (MDBs) that implement CIF funding.

The Clean Technology Fund (CTF) is one of the two funds of the CIF, which has provided more than $5 billion concessional financing to middle-income countries to scale up the demonstration, deployment, and transfer of low-carbon technologies in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable transport. Energy efficiency makes up about 15 percent of the current CTF portfolio, compared with over 70 percent for renewable energy.

This side event will feature three case studies of CTF-financed energy efficiency projects from India, Mexico, and Turkey. Government officials and financiers from these countries will present their experiences and lessons learned from these projects and perspectives on the role of public finance in unlocking the energy efficiency market. Representatives from the MDBs will share their insights in scaling energy efficiency financing, including in the context of implementing their climate action plans.

This side event will contribute to the High-Level Plenary Session on Financing Innovative Business Models.