There is growing consensus that women act as benefit multipliers for climate change mitigation and adaptation, playing an important role in their businesses, communities, and homes. Women are a catalytic force for adopting sustainable land use practices as well as for clean cooking, heating, and lighting. Women have also been found to be more concerned about climate risks than men, and companies with women in leadership positions are more likely to adopt sustainability practices and lower carbon emissions.

While leveraging women’s unique roles as consumers, workers, and borrowers is increasingly recognized as imperative to advancing climate goals, climate finance has not sufficiently tapped into women’s potential. Worldwide, women receive only 7% of total agriculture investments, while 80% of women-owned business struggle to access finance. Furthermore, since climate change disproportionately impacts women, climate finance that does not consider women’s specific needs can severely undermine the sustainability of climate investments. More gender-responsive climate finance can address impact inequalities and catalyze women’s empowerment and ensure effective and “smart” climate finance.

Aiming to fill these gaps and with support from FinDev Canada and Global Affairs Canada, the Lab is seeking proposals for financial solutions that have both the advancement of gender equality and addressing climate change mitigation or adaptation as core objectives. Ideas must directly impact and provide specific outcomes for gender equality and women empowerment. Check additional resources and the FAQ.

The Government of India has made it a national priority to drive development and access to electricity through cleaner growth, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency, including through an ambitious target of 40% of its electricity generation capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. However, India needs more capital, and at more attractive terms, to build the green infrastructure required.

Increasing investment from the private sector is essential to driving the country’s infrastructure growth. Currently, high risks and other poor financing terms may be limiting India’s investment potential.

With support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Lab is seeking innovative solutions to finance infrastructure for renewable energy and other channels for green growth, providing concrete solutions to the unique financing challenges to investment in green infrastructure in India.

Brazil aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 37% below 2005 levels by 2025 and 43% by 2030. To this end, the country intends to achieve zero illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and to restore 12 million hectares of forests while also increasing the use of renewables to 45% of the energy mix, among other measures. However, like in many emerging economies, funding to meet these targets remains challenging.

The Lab seeks transformative investment solutions that can drive funds for Brazil’s national climate priorities.

The United Kingdom Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy funds the Brazil program.

The Lab’s East and Southern Africa program seeks innovative finance instruments that address issues unique to the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the East Africa Community (EAC) regions. Due to a combination of exposure to climate change stresses and low adaptive capacity, they include some of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.

National budgets can cover only a fraction of the required investments. International public and private financing, as well as capacity-building support, are needed for these countries to reach their targets.

Alongside the five ideas that will be developed in the Lab’s 2023 specific sectoral or regional streams, the Lab will also develop one climate finance idea that targets any climate-relevant sector in any developing country. Submissions to this open stream should explain clearly why the target sector and geography identified should be priorities for climate finance mobilization. Ideas could cover a variety of sectors, including, but not limited to, nature-based solutions, renewable energy, food systems, or land use.