The Climate Investment Fund is Norway’s most important tool in accelerating the global energy transition by investing in renewable energy, storage and transmission in emerging markets with large emissions from coal and other fossil power production.
The Climate Investment Fund, managed by Norfund, became formally operative in 2022, and during the first year, Norfund made commitments for more than 2 billion NOK in projects that will avoid annual emissions of 6,2 million tons of CO2.
Management
The climate investment fund will be allocated 10 billion NOK over five years, with 1 billion coming from Norfund’s capital and 1 billion from the state budget each year.
The instructions to Norfund state that “The purpose of the Climate Investment Fund is to contribute to reducing or avoiding greenhouse gas emissions by investing in renewable energy in developing countries with large emissions from coal and other fossil fuel production”.
As with Norfund’s usual operations, the goal is to help activate investments that would otherwise not be made.
Norfund will prioritize investments in the production and development of renewable energy, as well as areas closely tied to this, such as battery storage.
Norfund will primarily invest in equity, with a 20-35% ownership interest, and the individual investments will be around 50-150 million dollars. The choice of investments will be governed by where Norfund has competence and can make the largest possible difference. We will prioritize 8 core countries: South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.
Norfund will manage the Climate Investment Fund on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The investments under the Climate Investment Fund will be made under Norfund’s own name, but the fund’s investments and portfolio will be managed separately from Norfund’s other activities.