Understanding the Climate Finance Accelerator South Africa

This episode is presented in partnership with GreenCape, in collaboration with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
Read the CFA press release here

Listen or watch to understand:

• Guests in this conversation: Ian Callaghan, Originator of the Climate Finance Accelerator, Mike Mulcahy, Chief Executive Officer of GreenCape and John Gibbs, Infrastructure Finance Advisor to the Climate Finance Accelerator.
• What the CFA is, how it came about and what it will do.
• Why is it so hard for low carbon projects to find suitable investments.
• How the CFA understands the climate finance landscape in each country it operates in (Nigeria, South Africa, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Turkey).
• How GreenCape reacted when they heard about the CFA and how it can help in South Africa.
• The kinds of projects that are applying to be part of the CFA, and what kind of needs they have.
• The next steps for the South African CFA projects that have been identified.
• Major challenges standing in the way of the success of the CFA and how each show guest would solve it if they had a magic wand.

About GreenCape
GreenCape is a non-profit organisation that drives the widespread adoption of economically viable green economy solutions from the Western Cape. We work with businesses, investors, academia and government to help unlock the investment and employment potential of green technologies and services, and to support a transition to a resilient green economy.
Visit them here to learn more

About The Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA)
It is a £10 million 4-year initiative of the UK Government's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Working in 8 middle-income countries, it brings together project developers, government and financiers to improve the supply chain for climate finance and the flow of investable projects supporting national commitments to the Paris agreement. The programme launched formally in April 2021 and its first six country partners are Nigeria, South Africa, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Turkey. It directly responds to the urgency and scale of the climate crisis by supporting highly promising climate projects to become more bankable and appealing to investors, so that they can secure funding more readily. The CFA approach addresses the fact that there is money available for climate finance, but it is often difficult for it to flow to the places where it is needed. The global programme is delivered by PwC, in collaboration with Ricardo. The National Business Initiative (NBI) in partnership with GreenCape have been appointed as the national delivery partners for the CFA South Africa.
Learn more here

About Ian Callaghan
A banker by background, Ian Callaghan has worked in project finance, investment banking and sustainable finance for some 35 years. Since 2005 he has focussed on what is now termed impact investing and, since 2015, on climate finance. As well as heading his own consultancy, Ian Callaghan Associates, he is the originator of the Climate Finance Accelerator concept and, having developed it through the pilots since 2017, is now adviser to the UK government on the CFA programme.

He is also a senior adviser at Consilum Capital, a London-based corporate finance adviser focussed on sustainable investments, mainly in emerging markets. In past roles, Ian has been involved in many aspects of sustainable finance in emerging markets. He was the founding Managing Director of Enclude Capital Advisory (since acquired by Palladium), a Senior Director of Investments at the California-based Omidyar Network, one of the first and leading impact investing foundations, and from 2006-2008, Head of Microfinance at the investment bank Morgan Stanley. At the outset of his career, with NatWest, he worked in project finance on the £7 billion financing of the Channel Tunnel.

Ian was born and brought up in West Africa (where his family worked for 25 years), and holds a BA degree from King's College London.

About Mike Mulcahy
Mike Mulcahy is the GreenCape Chief Executive Officer. Mike is a registered development finance practitioner (CDFA), with a background in Economics and Finance. Mike has been at GreenCape since it began and has played roles across the organisation. GreenCape has focussed on unlocking and unblocking opportunities in the Green economy, its efforts has resulted in some R42bn of investment and the creation of some 19000 jobs. Mike is the current chairperson of the International Cleantech network, a network of world leading Cleantech clusters, collectively representing about 15 000 Cleantech companies worldwide.

About John Gibbs
John is an independent consultant based in Johannesburg currently working as a senior infrastructure adviser with PwC and the IFC. Formerly a partner with PwC in the UK and South Africa, John was responsible for PwC's Infrastructure and Government business across Sub-Saharan Africa between 2013-19.

John is a specialist in the PPP sector having worked on a wide range of PFI/PPP projects in the UK, Southern Africa (including South Africa, Namibia and Botswana), East and West Africa and elsewhere. John brings particular experience in transacting major infrastructure projects in complex multi-service contracting environments including waste management, power and utilities and transportation.

Across a 30-year career in infrastructure John has worked as an economist and financial adviser for public and private sector clients in Africa, Asia and South America as well as Europe and the UK. He has worked for a number of IFIs including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, DBSA, EBRD and, most recently the IFC.

John is currently supporting the UK Government as a Finance Specialist on the implementation of the Climate Finance Accelerator programme.