Mobilising private funding

Christopher A McHugh

Finding better ways to finance the climate transition has become a matter of urgency. The publication of the 6th IPCC Assessment Report in August 2021, during a summer of wildfires and floods around the world, foreshadowed what might happen if the planet warms beyond the Paris Agreement targets agreed at COP21 in 2015.

The Paris Agreement was not the only event of note in 2015. That year also marked the launch of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a concerted push by multilateral development banks (MDBs) to mobilise the private sector in support of these targets. The confluence of these events, and the increased awareness of the urgency of focusing on our climate, has precipitated the start of a radical transformation of the financial services industry which has a long way to run.

A key starting point in assessing mobilisation efforts is to recognise that the climate transition problem is systemic, and that resolving it will require coordination between governments, corporations, the financial sector and consumers. The definition of “mobilisation” for this chapter is the influence that public sector development institutions seek to have on private