Climate

NDBs: Building bridges between Public & Private climate action at OECD PF4SD Conference in Paris

31 January 2020

National development banks: Building bridges between Public and Private Climate Action

OECD Private Finance for Sustainable Development (PF4SD) Conference

On January 28, 2020 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) hosted in Paris the 2020 Private Finance for Sustainable Development (PF4SD) Conference. It was the occasion for the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) to demonstrate how National and Regional development banks are poised to play a key role in aligning private finance with the SDGs and the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

The OECD, IDFC and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI)  jointly organized this side event to discuss the role of development banks, to collate evidence on challenges to unlock their potential, and explore opportunities to address these challenges. While the assets under management in development banks dwarf multilateral development bank financing in many developing countries, their transformative potential goes beyond the sheer volumes of finance provided. Their unique value added lies in the ability to support policy makers and market creation, the provision of local currency financing and their role in intermediating international climate finance.

Moderated by Jonathan Coony,  Senior Climate Finance Specialist, World Bank, benefitting from the crossed remarks by Jorge Moreira da Silva, OECD Director for Development Co-operation Directorate and Rémy Rioux, IDFC Chairperson and  AFD CEO,  the discussion drew on key messages of the OECD report ‘Scaling up climate-compatible infrastructure: Insights from national development banks in Brazil and South Africa’ and the launch of a new ODI report ‘Securing climate-smart investment through national development banks’ presented by Samantha Attridge, ODI Financial Markets Director. Astrid Manroth, Director for the Finance Strategy of the European Climate Foundation (ECF), pointed out the comparative advantages of development banks in climate finance.

Several IDFC members, such as Admassu Tadesse, President and Chief Executive, Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB), Nabil Moura Kadri, Head of Department, Environment and Amazon Fund, Brazil Development Bank (BNDES), Mohan Vivekananda, Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) Group Executive for Client Coverage & Origination and Refik Akıncı, Turkiye Sinai Kalkinma Bankasi (TSKB)’s Sherpa for IDFC and Director of IDFC Climate Facility Coordination Unit were participating in the side event illustrating the role of their institution with concrete examples and explained their strategy in raising ambition within the Framework of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

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