Unlocking Commercial Financing for Clean Energy in East Asia

Abstract

Overwhelming evidence indicates that climate change, caused in large part by human activities, is already adversely impacting all people, with the very real prospect of worse to come. Nevertheless, a global treaty to curb carbon emissions remains elusive. In East Asia, all middle-income countries have set national targets for energy efficiency and renewable energy, and some even have targets for carbon reduction. This report focuses on recent experiences in applying public financing instruments and tries to draw the lessons to date: when and how to use the instruments, which instrument to select, and how to design and implement them. The wide range of financial instruments designed to support and catalyze clean energy investment over the last decade is truly remarkable. Such instruments include credit lines and risk guarantees designed to increase both the capacity and confidence of commercial banks for clean energy lending; dedicated funds and concessional financing mechanisms to kick-start new technologies; mezzanine and equity financing targeted at start-ups; small and medium enterprises and energy service companies; and various consumer financing instruments designed to lower the upfront costs of clean energy equipment. This report systematically reviews the successes and failures of innovative interventions and distills the lessons of applying them. This report is organized in following four parts: part one gives overview; part two focuses on financing energy efficiency; part three focuses on financing renewable energy; and part four focuses on clean energy financing case studies.