Green banks represent the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle that governments urgently need to accelerate the green transition and ensure sustainable COVID-19 recovery plans.
Green banks are institutions that can directly finance our future, mobilise private capital and help shape a long-term vision of the green economy, bridging the gap between finance and policy.
E3G Explores:
E3G has extensive experience with green banks, starting with our work in 2009 in the UK to help to set up the world’s first green investment bank (GIB). We then took the idea globally, working with stakeholders in Mexico, South Africa, Colombia and other regions.
More recently, we’ve applied our experience to inform the proposal for a London Future Finance Facility which will be the first institution of this kind to have a focus on delivering a just transition supporting disadvantaged communities and creating jobs. We’ve also been working on the transformation of the European Investment Bank (EIB) into a climate bank.
In our short video, we summarise what green banks are, why they’re important and how you can set them up, whether you are an NGO, activist, government advisor or policymaker. The video offers 90 seconds of time well-spent, and includes links to an entire archive of relevant materials.
Our single biggest finding is that the barriers that these institutions face are common across countries, which means that it is important to learn from previous experiences. The process of establishing a green bank is the same everywhere, even though each institution is different and shaped by its own jurisdiction.
Our resources listed above, along with this video, are designed to help stakeholders overcome the barriers that green banks can face in establishing themselves, to ensure a climate-safe future for all.
