The European Investment Bank and the Green Climate Fund have signed an Accreditation Master Agreement, allowing them to work together to finance climate action in developing countries.

The agreement was signed at EIB’s headquarters in Luxembourg by Howard Bamsey, GCF Executive Director, and Jonathan Taylor, EIB Vice President, in the presence of EIB President Werner Hoyer.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Howard Bamsey stated the partnership between EIB and GCF is a crucial one, since it has the potential to finance game-changing climate projects that meet the needs of developing countries.

“I am excited that today’s agreement means that we can advance our collaboration, particularly regarding the GEEREF NeXt project, which will deliver renewable energy and energy efficiency investment funds across the developing world at scale, opening the doors to transformative private sector investment,” he said.

Mr Bamsey continued: ‘It will also let us move towards implementing our project in Madagascar. Together with another partner, Conservation International, this initiative will enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers and reduce deforestation in one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change in the world.”

Accreditation Master Agreements (AMAs) establish the terms and conditions for partnerships between GCF and its Accredited Entities. The signing of AMAs is a prerequisite for all GCF Accredited Entities to implement GCF-approved projects. Accredited Entities work in collaboration with National Designated Authorities (NDAs), which are nominated by the recipient countries of climate finance.

The European Investment Bank is the largest multilateral provider of climate finance in the world. Since 2010, the EIB has met its commitment to dedicate a proportion of total lending to climate action. Since 2012, this target has been to exceed 25 percent of total lending (In 2016, climate action represented over 26 percent of the total lending, or EUR 19.5 billion). In 2015, the EIB committed to dedicate 35 percent of its lending to developing countries to climate action by 2020 (In 2016, this represented 26 percent of its own resource lending, or EUR 1.9 billion).

The adoption of this AMA allows collaboration to advance on two projects with EIB that have already been approved by the GCF Board, GEEREF NeXt and Sustainable Landscapes in Eastern Madagascar.

The GEEREF NeXt project is an innovative vehicle to provide growth equity to SMEs in the energy efficiency and renewable energy sector in developing countries.

The Sustainable Landscapes in Eastern Madagascar project has been developed jointly by EIB and Conservation International. It takes a holistic approach to sustainable landscapes in both forested lands and degraded areas at a large scale, demonstrating the case for private sector and public sector involvement in forestry projects, and integrating both adaptation and mitigation benefits.