DFC Earth Day town hall highlights need for private investment in climate

“Investment is precisely what our planet needs, and investment is exactly what DFC was built to do,” DFC CEO Scott Nathan told a group of more than 200 businesses, nonprofits and NGOs who joined DFC’s Earth Day town hall on April 22, Investing in a Sustainable Future.

The event, which also featured former EPA Administrator Carol Browner, highlighted the need for private investment as well as the opportunities for private investors in the world’s emerging markets.

DFC has identified climate as a top investment priority and supports a range of investments in projects that are helping reduce emissions over time and helping communities adapt to the changes they are already experiencing today.

“Investment is precisely what our planet needs, and investment is exactly what DFC was built to do.”

— DFC CEO Scott A. Nathan

Many of the world’s poorest countries are experiencing the most severe impacts of severe storms, droughts, and other impacts of climate change. The World Bank estimates that climate change could push an additional 100 million people into poverty by 2030, equivalent to the entire population of Egypt.

“Government can never do it alone,” Browner said during the event, in a conversation with DFC Chief Climate Officer Jake Levine. “Ultimately the private sector has to step in. The opportunity of DFC is the way you can work with the private sector.”

DFC provides loans, insurance, equity investments, and technical assistance to support private businesses in emerging markets and is working to expand and diversify its climate portfolio, mobilize billions of private sector dollars for climate finance, and expand its focus on climate adaptation to help protect lives and livelihoods and ensure that farmers can continue to produce food through unpredictable weather.

While renewable power plants and other major infrastructure projects often require large investments of time and money, DFC’s Levine emphasized that DFC can also offer relatively small amounts of technical assistance to help launch early-stage innovative projects.

DFC’s Earth Day event, Investing in a Sustainable Future: Climate Finance in Emerging Markets, can be viewed here.