The United Kingdom’s development finance institution (DFI) and impact investor, British International Investment (BII), on Thursday launched British Climate Partners (BCP), a £1.1 billion initiative to mobilise private capital for energy transition in India and other developing economies in South-East Asia with rising energy demand and clear decarbonisation goals.
In the next five years, BII targets 40 per cent of its new investments, including BCP, to qualify as climate finance. Under the initiative, it will partner with private investors to deploy capital through a combination of equity platforms and mezzanine finance to scale climate projects, reduce early-stage risks, and offer potential higher returns to attract commercial investors, BII said in a statement.
The focus will be on investments supporting emission reduction in countries with coal-based energy networks and rising demand for clean energy such as India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and other South-East Asian economies.
Asian countries constituted about three-quarters of global coal demand in 2024, and the scale of investment required for the transition remains significant, with South-East Asia needing an estimated $210 billion annually. India alone requires at least $160 billion a year until 2030.
“Through this new initiative, we’ll use our experience, capital and partnerships to build platforms, derisk projects and crowd in long-term investment into commercially viable climate opportunities across the region,” Srini Nagarajan, MD and Head of Asia, BII said.
Over the next five years, at least 25 per cent of BII’s new investments will be committed to least developed countries by the United Nations’ definition, the statement said. It will also commit 30 per cent of its new investments (excluding BCP investments) to support women under the 2X Challenge, which was launched at the G7 Summit 2018 and has raised over $33.6 billion to empower women’s economic development.
The company has investments in over 1,600 businesses across 66 countries and total net assets of £9.87 billion.
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