The advisory committee will guide the International Solar Alliance on meeting its objective of mobilizing US$ 1 trillion investment in solar energy by 2030. Committee members include representatives from leading institutional investor like Africa50, CDPQ Global, IFC, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Capricorn Investment Group, and Temasek.
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) has formed an advisory committee to achieve its goal of mobilizing more than $1 trillion of solar power investment by 2030 to address the issues of energy access, energy transition, and energy security in emerging markets and developing economies.
The committee comprises leading institutional investors, including multilateral and commercial organizations, to guide the ISA on its investment objective. Senior representatives from leading investors like Africa50, Canada’s CDPQ Global, World Bank’s private-sector arm International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Development Bank of Southern Africa, US-based Capricorn Investment Group, and Singapore’s Temasek are part of the committee.
The advisory committee will inform and direct ISA on partnerships to achieve the US $1 trillion solar investment target. ISA’s partnership with Denmark’s Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), green thinktank CONCITO, and World Climate Fund is one among the many more to follow. The partnership aims to translate ISA’s goal into real investments on the ground by engaging investment and finance actors.
Speaking on these developments Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, ISA said, “The members of the Advisory Committee have depth and diversity of years of experience, and their guidance on solutions will help drive investments across regions. Their guidance, as well as the partnerships with IFU, CONCITO, and World Climate Fund will help us unearth opportunities and establish the conditions that facilitate an expanded flow of institutional capital into solar energy. These meaningful partnerships and advisors serve as an endorsement of our journey Towards 1000 while also symbolizing a diversification and broadening of stakeholder interest in solar energy.”
The new ISA partnership will build on the Solar Investment Action Agenda released at COP26, and on ISA’s ongoing efforts with the World Resources Institute (WRI), Bloomberg Philanthropies, and BloombergNEF to develop a Solar Investment Roadmap to be launched in 2022.
Connie Hedegaard, Chair of CONCITO’s Board and former EU Commissioner for Climate Action, said: “We know that the world needs to dramatically scale up investments in renewable energy including solar to achieve our climate and development objectives. We also know that the majority of this investment will need to happen in the developing world and will have to be financed by private sources. The Nordic region has an important contribution to make. We have investors and businesses with the ambition and willingness to act. We have made public-private “ambition loops” work in practice. And we have public finance that is able to catalyze private investments. CONCITO is proud to partner with the International Solar Alliance in this ambitious effort, and in doing so further deepening our partnership with World Resources Institute.”
Torben Huss, CEO of Denmark’s Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) said, “As the Danish DFI, we are committed to scaling up investments in climate and clean energy. We have a special focus and track record in helping to channel institutional capital to emerging and developing economies.”
Jens Nielsen, CEO of World Climate Foundation, said: “Ambitious frontrunners in the Investment community have made long-term commitments to net-zero targets. Through efforts like the Climate Investment Coalition, they focus on translating this into tangible investments in the near future. The third logical and necessary step is to make concerted efforts to make increasing levels of investments happen in the developing world, where the investment needs are the highest. ISA aims to generate investments at scale, and WCF is happy to join the effort to mobilize $1 trillion in solar investments.”