Exploring sustainable climate finance: UfM SG meets with BNP Paribas Senior Advisor Pierre Rousseau and R20 Executive Director Christophe Nuttall
4 May 2021. The UfM Secretary General, Nasser Kamel, held an online meeting with BNP Paribas Senior Strategic Advisor for Sustainable Business, Pierre Rousseau, and the Executive Director of R20, Christophe Nuttall. R20 is a not-for-profit international organization that works to create inclusive, resilient, and low-carbon societies by accelerating sub-national infrastructure investments in the green economy, with the goal of contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
They discussed the opportunity to develop the “Subnational Climate Fund” (SCF) recently approved by the Green Climate Fund and managed by Pegasus Capital Advisor. BNP Paribas is custodian and the lead agent for distribution to this fund, which seeks innovative blended financial solutions to catalyse investment in climate change mitigation and adaptation projects in the countries of the Southern and Eastern shores of the Mediterranean; more specifically in infrastructure projects on sanitation, off-grid energy production, energy efficiency, and regenerating agriculture following the baseline of the Nature Based Solutions.
They also discussed the opportunity to design and submit to the Green Climate Fund a similar SCF exclusive to the Mediterranean Basin, for UfM and GCF eligible countries, and more focused on climate change adaptation measures that can be developed with the private developers within Mediterranean coastal cities and regions.
In view of the UfM Ministerial Conference on Environment and Climate Action and the upcoming international summits on Climate this year, ways of giving visibility to this great initiative were agreed. The Secretary General expressed his excitement for the opportunity that the entrance of a private actor the size of BNP Paribas represents as a catalyser to attract more private investors in the efforts to advance a green and sustainable agenda in the Mediterranean.
