The mitigation of climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, and other grand societal challenges has historically been primarily financed through public funding and private philanthropic giving. Yet, a large financing gap remains, especially in the Global South. The question: how can we crowd in more private capital to finance innovative solutions in climate tech, renewable energy, nature-based solutions, social inclusion, and others, especially in the Global South? To better understand the challenges and opportunities in mobilizing more private capital investments, the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) will bring together a carefully curated set of key leaders in the public and private sectors, policymakers, and academia, including ministers of finance/economy, ambassadors, United Nations (UN), World Bank Group, Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), philanthropies, corporate leaders, leading investment managers and asset owners, VC investors, rating agencies, and others.
The Inaugural SIRI Blended Finance Conference will be held on September 25, 2024. It will feature keynote speeches, panel discussions, as well as parallel workstreams dedicated to critical challenges in blended finance. Specifically, this includes i) a technical workstream on the optimal design of blended finance deals such as the degree of concessionality, additionality, waterfall structure between tranches and risk allocation across investors, and more. It also includes ii) a workstream on the role of (and relationship between) the World Bank and Development Finance Institutions, their shareholders, and credit rating agencies in serving as catalysts and coalescing the global funding needed to close the financing gap and mitigate the climate and biodiversity crises among others.
The SIRI Blended Finance Conference is by invitation only and an integral part of a broader SIRI Blended Finance effort launched at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (see the press release). The aim is to foster networking and dialogue among key leaders across sectors. Moreover, the insights of these discussions will inform each participating organization as well as SIRI's plan for future actions and research to help scale up the global marketplace for blended finance and catalytic capital.
