Climate Investor One

Press release

December 4, 2018

FinDev Canada invests USD 20 million in Climate Investor One to support transition to renewable energy in developing countries

Press Release

The investment will have a positive impact on climate change mitigation by avoiding 1.2 million tons of CO2 emissions

Expected Development Impact

Market development

Creating good-quality jobs in Africa, Asia and Latin America: CI1 investments will contribute to both short-term and long-term job creation in its target markets. FinDev Canada estimates that CI1 investee companies will create an estimated 870 permanent high-quality jobs in the energy sector, as well as up to 26,000 short-term construction jobs by 2035. The Fund’s activities will also contribute to indirect job creation, and FinDev Canada will support the fund manager, Cooperatief Climate Fund Managers U.A. (CFM) to model and report these indirect outcomes over the life of the Fund.
Economic value addition: CI1 investments in up to ~20 renewable energy projects will also generate economic value in local markets, through salary payments, taxes, and profits. FinDev Canada estimates that by 2035 the Fund’s activities may generate between USD 150 M to USD 215 M in local economic value added, such as in taxes and salaries paid.
Financial innovation for renewable energy projects: The unique three-fund approach pioneered by CI1 is expected to result in more project finance transactions completed, with shorter timeframes, and with less risk for investors. These outcomes will be monitored in order to gain learnings that can be shared with the wider development finance and renewable energy sectors on how to optimize investment structures for energy projects.

Increasing renewable energy capacity in emerging markets

New installed capacity of ~1,133 MW will contribute up to ~1.2 million tons of avoided GHG emissions (CO2 equivalent) by 2035.

Women’s Economic Empowerment

Empowering women in governance, leadership and employment in the Fund Manager: CFM is committed to supporting diversity and inclusion throughout its business through various workplace policies and benefits and through the tracking of gender-disaggregated key performance indicators (KPIs) with a view to increasing women’s participation and continuing to lead in inclusive workplace practices.
Capacity building through community development: CFM will support opportunities for women to participate in leadership roles, training, knowledge-sharing, and to gain access to relevant information tools and resources.
Incorporating gender considerations into the investment process: As part of its standard environmental and social risk assessment process, CFM will undertake a gender analysis for each of its projects to identify potential challenges and opportunities relating to women’s economic empowerment.
Creating good-quality jobs for women: CFM projects will create direct and indirect employment for women through its investments in renewable energy companies and will provide practical approaches to help portfolio companies improve women’s employment opportunities in the sector. This could include activities in areas such as inclusive workplace best practices on recruitment, professional development, benefits, or others.
Ensuring gender-aware stakeholder engagement: CI1 projects will assess barriers and opportunities for women’s participation in stakeholder engagement and ensure that gender-focused solutions are incorporated into project design and management plans.
Contributing to improved data on gender and renewable energy: CFM is developing a monitoring and evaluation plan that will allow CFM to accurately collect and report gender-disaggregated indicators over the life of its investments, and thus contribute to industry knowledge and learning on women’s participation in the renewable energy sector.

Climate Action

Increasing renewable energy capacity in Africa, Asia and Latin America, thus contributing to avoided carbon emissions: The CI1 facility will finance approximately twenty small- to mid-size renewable energy projects including onshore wind, solar, and run-of-river projects with generation capacity typically ranging from 25 to 100MW each. New installed capacity of ~1,133 MW will lead to ~3.2 GWh of additional renewable energy production and contribute up to ~1.2 million tons of avoided GHG emissions (CO2 equivalent) in emerging markets by 2035.