Michael Liebreich, the founder of Finance for Resilience (FiRe) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) held a webinar on FiRe 2015. Discussion topics included a background to FiRe, the different FiRe roles, the achievements of FiRe 2014 and what qualifies as a good submission for FiRe 2015.

In 2014, FiRe had six winners in three workstreams: securitization, scale & aggregation and risk management. Since April, green bonds championed by Bank of America have moved into the mainstream with a record volume of $38bn issued in 2014. The intervention “Accelerating energy efficiency financing” agreed on a $2m funding collaboration with the Global Environment Facility. The debt fund for prepaid energy access plans for a roll-out in Rwanda.

In 2015, FiRe has expanded to new workstreams: climate-resilient infrastructure, energy access/poverty and cities/municipalities, among others. The webinar also covered the criteria for a good FiRe idea: actionability, scale and relevance to the sector. Michael discussed various capacities in which interested parties can get involved with FiRe in 2015, from championing an idea, to serving as a coach and advising ideas or joining as a working group member to support the implementation of a proposed intervention.

FiRe is accepting submissions for 2015 until mid-February. The FiRe pre-selection committee will determine the finalists in March and the winners for FiRe 2015 will be selected at the BNEF Summit in New York on 15 April 2015.

Download the slide deck from the webinar presentation here or replay the webinar here.

For more information contact Lela Jgerenaia at ljgerenaia@bloomberg.net.