BlackRock, partners eye initial $500 mln for climate fund

(Reuters News, 22 Jan 2020) The group will provide the first $100 million of funding for the Climate Finance Partnership set up in 2018.

A BlackRock-backed group aims to raise an initial $500 million for a private equity fund that will invest in climate change-linked infrastructure upgrades in emerging markets.

The group will provide the first $100 million of funding for the Climate Finance Partnership (CFP), which was set up in 2018 along with France, Germany and the Hewlett and Grantham charitable foundations, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

The funding will go towards a first-loss tranche that will absorb any initial losses, a safety net for other institutional investors that BlackRock expects to help it raise at least another $400 million.

The CFP fund will be invested in renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage solutions and ultra-low and electric transport. At least a quarter of the investments would be made in Africa, with the rest in selected countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America, BlackRock said.

The venture is part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the way BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, is responding to the issue of climate change, as part of a broader commitment to environmental, social and governance-related investing.

Climate has also been at the forefront of this year's annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, at which news of the planned initial fund-raising was announced.

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Reuters News, 22 Jan 2020: BlackRock, partners eye initial $500 mln for climate fund