Bridging the Gap: Mobilising Institutional Capital with Green Guarantees

​Climate finance needs to grow at least fivefold by 2030 to meet global climate goals. Yet today, much of the financing for climate projects in emerging markets still depends on public budgets and concessional funding, while the vast pools of institutional capital — from pension funds, insurers, asset managers, and banks — remain largely on the sidelines.

​This creates a fundamental challenge: how to use limited public resources to mobilise much larger volumes of private capital. Achieving this means building the confidence, structures, and partnerships needed for commercial investors to participate at scale.

​Guarantees are a powerful tool to bridge this gap with a leveraging effect. By transferring risk away from private investors and providing a backstop, they can build market confidence and make emerging market climate projects investable for new types of capital. As successful transactions build track records and investors gain a clearer understanding of actual risks, perceived risk declines — and the need for guarantees can diminish.

​Against this backdrop, the discussion will explore:

​· how public, concessional, and commercial actors can work together so capital is directed where it is best suited,

​· how guarantees can help mobilise institutional investment, and

​· what a more mature and balanced climate finance system could look like in 10 years’ time.