Friday Funds: Investment lab launches eight instruments for climate and green recovery

The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance, an initiative of over 60 public and private investors and institutions, has launched eight finance solutions to drive climate action and a green recovery from COVID. They are: 1) ‘Climate Adaptation Notes’ to fund water and wastewater climate adaptation projects in Southern Africa; 2) A Brazilian Conexsus Impact Fund, designed to make federal subsidized credit lines greener, providing financial products and facilitating access to loans for cooperatives and SMEs supporting sustainable, forest-friendly production systems; 3) Distributed solar developer GreenStreet Africa, which targets hospitals, healthcare clinics and other public facilities in Sub-Saharan Africa; 4) A platform called GROVE: FSL that links community mangrove projects with corporate and individual donors to scale up private finance for restoration and preservation. 5) Monetizing Water Savings, a Latin America pay-for-performance instrument to address agricultural water efficiency; 6) The Rural Prosperity Bond to finance land restoration efforts which are too small for commercial banks and too large for microfinance; 7) The Sub-national Climate Finance Initiative, a private equity programme offering technical assistance to climate projects and assessing them for SDG impact; 8) The Sustainable Agriculture Finance Facility, centred on promoting integrated crop-livestock forest systems in Brazil, with the potential to improve livelihoods and support climate goals.

Credit Suisse, in partnership with Rockefeller Asset Management, has raised $212m for the first impact fund dedicated to ocean health. The fund, supported by non-profit The Ocean Foundation, follows three key ocean themes: pollution prevention, carbon transition, and ocean conservation.

BNP Paribas Asset Management’s Environmental Absolute Return Thematic (EARTH) Fund has reached its annual return target in less than three months, according to a statement. Launched in July, the fund seeks to identify opportunities among companies facing or addressing significant environmental challenges.

PIMCO has launched the PIMCO GIS Climate Bond Fund dedicated to invest in both labeled and unlabeled green bonds, as well as bonds from issuers demonstrating innovative approaches to environmental sustainability. 

The BlackRock Circular Economy Fund has raised over $900m in its first year. Launched in partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the fund has a framework to identify companies making headway to address climate change, biodiversity loss and plastic pollution.

Franklin Templeton has launched a new emerging markets sustainability fund for European investors. The fund primarily invests in companies in developing or emerging markets which demonstrate good or improving sustainability criteria. The fund will apply specific ESG exclusions and will not invest in companies involved in weapons, tobacco, coal and unconventional oil and gas extraction.

ATP Private Equity Partners has raised €800m for the launch of its seventh fund, focused on Europe and North America. Mikkel Svenstrup, CIO at ATP said ATP Private Equity Partners had “been able to implement our increased requirements for ESG-integration in the investment processes and ensured that ATP’s tax policy has been implemented,” before launching the fund. 

Greenlight Planet has secured $90m to expand its Pay-As-You-Go solar consumer financing business in Africa and Southeast Asia. The for-profit social business designs, distributes, and finances solar home energy for consumers without access to the electrical grid. Investors include European development finance institutions CDC Group, FMO, and Norfund.

Greencoat UK Wind has raised £400m under its share issue programme. The renewable infrastructure fund has issued 305.3m shares in total.