Frank Bainimarama, Fijian Prime Minister and incoming President of COP 23, addresses delegates at the start of the closing plenary of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn
- The World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) have backed a sovereign green bond which aims to raise a total of US$50 million towards strengthening climate change mitigation and adaption in Fiji. Fiji has become the first developing country to launch a sovereign green bond, the first US$20 million tranche of which was oversubscribed by more than double.
- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has provided US$60 million in support of Serbia’s Banca Intesa along with its leasing subsidiary, Intesa Leasing. A line of credit totalling €30 million will be used by Banca Intesa for mortgage lending, with a €5 million for on-lending to businesswomen as part of the EBRD’s Western Balkans Women in Business programme.
- The bank is also providing a subordinated loan of up to US$100 million to Commercial International Bank (CIB) as strengthening measure for its capital base and to support its growing loan portfolio in Egypt.
- Lightsource, a global solar energy developer, and UK Climate Investments, part of Australian investment banking group Macquarie, have announced a partnership for a £30 million portfolio investing in Indian solar power. UK Climate Investments owns 49 percent equity in the project.
- Mexican startup Rescata has raised US$2 million to sell recycled cell phones from Mexican venture capital firm Capital Invent and German VC group E Capital, which aims to provided affordable mobile phones to Mexicans and treat electronic waste more efficiently.
- Proparco has renewed its partnership with the Costa Rican lender Promerica bank using a US$20 million line of credit to support the development of Costa Rican small businesses.
- Agence française de développement (AFD) has linked its climate ambitions with the Green Climate Fund. Two of the bank’s 15 operations currently ongoing include a US$20 million grant-backed project for irrigation and agricultural adaptation in the south-east of Morocco and a US$15 million-funded integrated urban flood management programme in Senegal.
- The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the US state-owned Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) have agreed to support infrastructure, energy and natural resources in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. OPIC, JBIC, and NEXI, an incorporated administrative agency of the Japanese government, have coordinated their support for projects producing 370 megawatts of natural gas-fired power in Jordan, as well as a private equity fund that supports the renewable energy value chain in India and South Asia.