Bloomberg Philanthropies, Climate Policy Initiative Launch FiRe Climate Finance Challenge

13 October 2015

Today, at the first European Regional Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) Summit in London, Bloomberg Philanthropies, BNEF, and Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) launched the third funding cycle for the Finance for Resilience (FiRe) initiative, an innovative platform to identify, launch and scale up private sector financing instruments for climate-friendly projects worldwide. Incubated over the past two years by BNEF, FiRe identifies, develops and supports the implementation of scalable ideas to drive private climate investment.

As world leaders continue preparations for the international climate negotiations in Paris later this year, the issue of climate finance—how to bankroll low-carbon energy systems and infrastructure needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change—has emerged as a major subject of discussion. To accelerate private sector investment in climate-friendly projects, platforms like FiRe and the related initiative, Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (The Lab), are crowdsourcing scalable ideas and helping provide implementation support to get them off the ground quickly.

Through a competitive, open-source selection process, FiRe uses an expert advisory board of financial and climate policy experts to identify promising interventions. This year, it will seek new proposals for financial innovations in clean energy, energy efficiency and sustainable cities in advance of December’s international climate negotiations in Paris. FiRe will formally open a call for new proposals on 9 November 2015 and details will be available at www.financeforresilience.com. The winning FiRe interventions will gain exposure, analytical support and access to a wide range of high-level experts to support implementation over the course of a year-long cycle.