May 23, Frankfurt, Germany – Mahua Acharya, GGGI’s Assistant Director General and Head of Investment and Policy Solutions Division, moderated a side event entitled, “Public and Private capital: an uncomfortable boundary,” held on the sidelines of the Innovate4Climate conference today.

There were discussions on how green growth and low carbon projects need different types of capital at various stages of their evolution. A large amount of capital that could be deployed for projects in emerging markets is not flowing because its providers require risk mitigation, facilitation, or partnerships – endeavors that can be provided by other capital providers. Concessional finance can mitigate some of these risks if deployed in innovative ways. But to effect capital flows in the trillions, the suite of blended finance instruments in the marketplace must increase. This side event stirred debate on what it takes to scale this market opportunity and make further dents in risk reduction of projects.

Fenella Aouane, GGGI’s Principal Green Finance Specialist, Green Investment Services Department, moderated a panel session on “Raising Markets in Asia.” Tatsushi Hemmi, Environment and Energy Dept., Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co., gave an update on the Japanese market, explaining how issuance has only been small so far but that was because the first projects were quick implementation projects like small solar. Kyu-uk Lee, Carbon Expert Group & Researcher of the Korea Research Institute on Climate Change (KRIC) gave an update on Korea’s scheme and explained how they will look to take international credits – showing a hybrid between trading and offset schemes.