Green Bank Network  is expected to mobilize $41 billion in public and private capital for green infrastructure projects around the globe.

Green banks are specialised financial institutions that work closely with the private sector to increase overall investment in clean energy. The aim of the green banks is to bring clean energy financing into the mainstream. Its members invest across the technology spectrum such as wind, utility, and small-scale solar, energy efficiency, low-carbon transport, combined heat and power, anaerobic digesters, LED street lighting, geothermal and energy storage.

Their finance portfolio has a wide range of products of all scales – from multibillion-dollar offshore wind farms to more energy efficient property and vehicles and affordable housing properties.

“Meeting climate goals will require an unprecedented and immediate mobilization of capital. Accelerating the formation of Green Banks in emerging economies can provide critical capacity to take on risk and leverage private capital to support large-scale low-carbon investment and enable countries, cities and states to meet their climate goals”, said Reed Hundt, CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital in a statement.

This network has been formed to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange and share some best practices. The members of the Green Bank Network include Clean Energy Finance Corporation (Australia), Connecticut Green Bank (US), Green Finance Organisation (Japan), Malaysia Green Technology Corporation, NY Green Bank (US), and Green Investment Group (UK) and Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank (US).

An analysis, by the Secretariat of the Green Bank Network, shows members are mobilizing as much as $10 in total investment for every $1 of public capital invested in clean energy projects. Moreover, to date these investments have avoided 25 million metric tons of harmful emissions.

A new climate finance facility has also been formed in Southern Africa. New green banks are also coming up in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Members of the Green Bank Network have so far committed about $10 billion for various projects with a total value of more than $40 billion.

Ilmi Granoff, Director of Sustainable Finance at the Climate Works Foundation said, “It is fantastic to see a growing network of institutions, in both industrialized and emerging markets, demonstrating that entrepreneurial public capital with a low-carbon mission is fiscally efficient and an effective catalyst for growth in the low-carbon economy.”

According to a recent report issued by the Center for Financial Accountability (CFA), a financial institution monitoring institute, public sector banks in the country funded more coal projects than renewable projects in 2017. In contrast, government-owned banks and private financial institutions have invested more in renewable energy projects than coal-based projects, stated the report.

In a recent report titled “Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2018” released by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), India was among the top recipients of electricity financing during the year 2015-16, with two-thirds of total financing concentrated in South Asia.