Asian Development Bank Publications Unit External Relatio

Published purpose

This initiative supports private sector projects across Asia and the Pacific that help countries reduce their carbon footprint and adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change. It focuses on increasing renewable energy and energy efficiency, supporting urban infrastructure and sustainable transportation, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It helps countries overcome technology risks and cost hurdles in order to initiate and scale-up projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase climate resilience. Clean energy projects supported by the Fund may include wind, solar, geothermal and hydro projects. The Fund provides concessional financing to catalyze private sector climate mitigation and adaptation projects that require loans with concessionary terms to be viable. The Fund may provide up to a third of its financing in repayable contributions offered in the local currency, rather than US dollars, to encourage local companies to invest by protecting them from unexpected borrowing costs that might result from fluctuations in the US dollar. All Fund investments are co-financed by the Asian Development Bank. During the investment period, the Fund also provides almost $7.4 million in technical assistance to select private sector projects or public sector projects that improve the enabling environment for private sector investments. Canada's contribution to the Fund is expected to leverage up to US $300 million in private sector investment over the Fund's 27-year life and help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 750,000 tonnes per annum.