Governments and philanthropies announce ground-breaking partnership with BlackRock to mobilise and deploy climate finance at scale
France, Germany, the Hewlett, Grantham and IKEA foundations, and asset manager BlackRock today announced the Climate Finance Partnership at the One Planet Summit in New York. The Climate Finance Partnership is an unprecedented cooperation between philanthropies, governments and private investors, which have committed to jointly developing an investment vehicle that will aim to invest in climate infrastructure in emerging markets (see the Climate Finance Partnership Statement below).
The partnership will seek to make investments in a targeted set of sectors including renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, and low-carbon and electrified transportation, across three regions including Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
BlackRock will work with members of the Partnership to design a structure that uses catalytic capital provided by the Partnership members – France’s development agency AFD and the German Ministry for the Environment, as well as the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust and the IKEA Foundation – to mobilize and deploy a multiple of institutional capital to mainstream climate infrastructure.
The Climate Finance Partnership was inspired by the leadership of French President Emmanuel Macron and coordinated with the support of the Task Force on Philanthropic Innovation, launched at the One Planet Summit in Paris in December 2017, and the investment advisory group Aligned Intermediary.
Featuring an innovative blend of philanthropic, government, and private sector capital, the Partnership will showcase the power and catalytic role of philanthropic and public capital to facilitate top-tier institutional capital investment into climate-related sectors in emerging markets.
The signatories of the Climate Finance Partnership Statement commit to collaborating diligently with a goal of finalizing the terms and structure of this ground-breaking investment partnership by the first quarter of 2019.
Climate Finance Partnership Statement
We, the undersigned, recognizing the need to significantly expedite the mobilization of private capital to address the climate challenge, and invest in the significant economic opportunities embedded in the transition to a global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economy, do hereby announce our commitment to establish an innovative partnership structure – the Climate Finance Partnership – that seeks to raise and deploy institutional capital to mainstream climate infrastructure in emerging markets, and accelerate the global power and energy transition.
The Climate Finance Partnership is inspired by the leadership of French President Emmanuel Macron and coordinated with the support of the Task Force on Philanthropic Innovation, which was launched by the President at the One Planet Summit in Paris in December 2017, and Aligned Intermediary.
The Partnership will feature a unique blend of philanthropic, government, and private sector capital, and it will showcase the power and catalytic role of philanthropic and public capital to facilitate top-tier institutional capital investment into climate-related sectors in emerging markets.
We confirm that philanthropic and government entities in the Partnership, including those listed below, will seek to make a major strategic, catalytic investment of capital in a way that will be used to strategically mobilize a multiple amounts of institutional capital commitments toward solving the climate problem.
We confirm that BlackRock will work with members of the Partnership to design a structure that aims to significantly expand the flow of institutional capital focused on the long-term theme of climate infrastructure investment. BlackRock will seek to manage the assets raised by this Partnership, as part of the firm’s commitment to extend its Renewable Power platform – which has already invested $5 billion in over 190 wind and solar projects – accelerating capital to climate infrastructure and the global energy transition.
The partnership will seek to make investments in a targeted set of sectors including renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, and low-carbon and electrified transportation, across countries in three regions including Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
We, the undersigned, commit to collaborating diligently with a goal of finalizing the terms and structure of this exciting new investment partnership by the first quarter of 2019.
Agence Française de Développement
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of Germany
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment
The IKEA Foundation
BlackRock
About the Task Force on Philanthropic Innovation
The Task Force on philanthropic innovation was formed during the One Planet Summit in December 2017. The Task Force is a coalition of 16 philanthropies and 4 governments with a shared commitment to exploring innovative solutions to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The members operate through four working groups to make progress on distinct focus areas: Blended Finance; Renewable Energy in South East Asia; Air Quality; and Agriculture, Land Use and Adaptation.
Task Force contact
Ida Kenny
Ida.kennyleduc@europeanclimate.org
About the philanthropies
The Hewlett Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is a nonpartisan, private charitable foundation that advances ideas and supports institutions to promote a better world. It supports efforts to advance education for all, preserve the environment, improve lives and livelihoods in developing countries, promote the health and economic well-being of women, support vibrant performing arts, strengthen Bay Area communities and make the philanthropy sector more effective.
The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust
The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust was formed in 2005 by Jeremy Grantham, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Strategist of Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo (GMO) and his wife Hannelore. GMO currently manages approximately $80 billion in a variety of strategies for institutional investors. The Trust is a 501(c)(3) public charity and a Type II 509(a)(2) supporting organization that supports charities whose mission is environmental protection. Its endowment is approximately $250 million and its trustees include representatives from The Nature Conservancy, The World Wildlife Fund-US and Rare in addition to Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham.
The IKEA Foundation
The IKEA Foundation goal is to create a better everyday life for as many people as possible around the world. The Foundation focus on these key necessities – a secure home, good health, a regular income, a desire to keep our children safe, to see them get a good education and succeed in life -, in order to improve the situation for children and youth across the developing world so that they can create a better future for themselves and their families.
About BlackRock
BlackRock helps investors build better financial futures. As a fiduciary to our clients, we provide the investment and technology solutions they need when planning for their most important goals. As of 30 June 2018, the firm managed approximately $6.3 trillion in assets on behalf of investors worldwide.