USA – The newly launched Climate Investment Platform (CIP) is good news for the clean energy transition and the wider sustainability agenda. Bringing together the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and UNDP in collaboration with the Green Climate Fund, the CIP will work to accelerate investments in developing countries.
Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) represent the central planks of the Paris Agreement, climate action plans each country commits to; initiatives like CIP are the vehicles that will turn the vision into reality. Energy, responsible for two-thirds of total greenhouse gas emissions, is just the first focus area for CIP, with service support for challenges relating to issues including land use and adaptation set to follow. What CIP offers covers four ‘building blocks along the climate finance value-chain’: ‘supporting governments to specify ambitious energy targets and scale up their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), establishing well-designed, implemented and enforced clean energy policies and regulations, financial de-risking of energy projects, and a market-place to connect clean energy investors and project sponsors’.
“Renewable energy is the most effective and ready solution to rising carbon emissions. Together with energy efficiency, they can deliver 90% of the emission reductions needed under the Paris Agreement, but investment and deployment must increase significantly,” said IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera. “This partnership combines the strengths of the respective organisations to deliver tailored, proactive policy and investment support to set the energy transformation on a climate-safe path.
The progress of the platform will be outlined at UNFCCC COP 25 in December 2019.
