Bank unveils green loans plan to unlock trillions for climate finance

An innovative plan to use public money to back renewable energy loans in the developing world could liberate cash from the private sector for urgently needed climate finance.

Avinash Persaud, a special adviser on climate change to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), who developed the proposals, believes the plan could drive tens of billions of new investment in the fledgling green economy in poorer countries within a few years, and could provide the bulk of the $1.3tn in annual climate finance promised to the developing world by 2035.

A street in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, devastated by a hurricane. IADB says the green loans proposal could be an ‘engine’ for growth. Photograph: Delmer Martínez/AP

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