Madrid, October 20, 2018. At its meeting in Manama, Bahrain, the Board of the Green Climate Fund approved the accreditation of COFIDES as a collaborating entity to mobilise resources from the Green Climate Fund. COFIDES is first Spanish institution to be accredited.

This authorises COFIDES to mobilise funding and donations from the Fund and to facilitate public and private sector access to these resources to execute their climate projects. The Green Climate Fund is a United Nations initiative to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation projects in developing countries in order to favour a paradigm shift towards low emission and climate resilient development. 

The president and CEO of COFIDES, José Luis Curbelo, explained that the company has been accredited thanks to a rigorous process that has just concluded. “From this moment forward, COFIDES will be able to submit proposals for funding from the Green Climate Fund thus opening a wide array of possibilities for the financing of climate projects”.

The Green Climate Fund was created in 2010 and has been ratified by 43 countries. With committed resources totalling over 10 billion dollars, the purpose of this initiative is to get the private sector involved in climate projects in the developing countries that are signatories of the Conference of the Parties (COP). This instrument aspires to become one of the main multilateral financing mechanisms to support climate initiatives in developing countries.

The Green Fund offers four types of financial instruments (grants, equity, concessional loans and guarantees), which are combined with reimbursable financing granted by accredited public or private institutions (in this case, COFIDES) for the financing of climate change mitigation and adaptation projects.

The Green Climate Fund focuses on the following strategic areas:

  • Access to low emission energy and electricity generation
  • Low emission transport
  • Energy efficient buildings, cities and industries
  • Sustainable land use and forest management.
  • Improving the livelihoods of the most vulnerable people, communities and regions
  • Enhancing health, well-being and food and water security
  • Infrastructure and built environments able to withstand the rigours of climate change
  • Resilient ecosystems

COFIDES is a public-private company which has been offering financial support to Spanish companies investing abroad since 1988. It is the exclusive manager of FIEX and FONPYME funds on behalf of the Secretariat of State for Trade attached to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism. Shareholders include Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Banco Santander, Banco Sabadell and CAF-Development Bank of Latin America.