Utilising technical assistance to support climate projects access finance

The Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA) is a global technical assistance programme funded by the UK Government to directly support climate projects in their efforts to access finance. The CFA works with businesses in emerging economies with the aim of encouraging the flows of finance required to deliver on countries’ ambition to limit global warming to 1.5°C. CFA South Africa was launched in 2020 and is delivered in-country by the National Business Initiative and GreenCape with support from the Global CFA team. Project developers receive one-to-one capacity building from experts across a wide range of topics including: financial capacity building, gender and social inclusion, technical and climate mitigation support, investor-led webinars, insurance and project risk, branding and marketing, and carbon markets. Following tailored one-to-one support, the CFA connects project developers with investors, who provide feedback and advice on their projects in a supportive environment. Networking sessions and a final pitching session enable projects to forge connections with investors. This support helps project developers strengthen their investment cases, while also building pipelines of high-quality climate projects for investors. To date, CFA supported projects in South Africa have subsequently secured deals worth nearly US$100m.