Scaled-up green investment is critical to pursuing and maintaining a green growth path. The International Energy Agency estimates 48 trillion US dollars of cumulative investment in energy supply and efficiency will be required by 2035 to enable growth in access while financing the clean energy technology investment needed to meet the 2℃ climate change target (IEA, 2016).

Green growth will necessitate a shift in both public and private investments, with the limited public funds accessible prudently targeted and accompanied by appropriate policy frameworks in order to leverage private financing. Mobilizing the required scale of green investment enables new and innovative approaches to generate action for global economic and climate challenges. Shifting to a greener growth trajectory requires a specific focus on communications, energy, transport, buildings and water networks.

The LEDS Expert Assistance on Finance (LEAF) program is developed to assist on designing finance, investment or funding strategy for a low emission project and provides no-cost assistance to representatives of government agencies and to technical institutes supporting them.

Relevance to the SDGs

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for increasing green investment across sectors including energy (target 7.a), ecosystems (target 15.a) and infrastructure (target 9.4) as well as climate change mitigation actions (target 13.a).

Explore green growth resources related to SDGs:

SDG 9.4
Green Infrastructure   SDG 13.a
  Carbon mitigation