New York – The Nordic Development Fund (NDF) announced its contribution of EUR500,000 to the Green and Resilience Debt Platform, led by UNDP in partnership with UNCDF. This new partnership addresses the barriers many African and Least Developed Countries face to access green borrowing markets, by unlocking up to US$2 billion in green debt capital markets, resulting in increased resilience of countries to the impacts of climate change. 

The announcement comes at a time when the UN Member States are gathered in New York for the 2023 ECOSOC Financing for Development (FfD) Forum, April 17-20, to discuss the most pressing issues facing financing for development. 

Karin Isaksson, Managing Director of NDF said, “NDF is committed to supporting Sub-Saharan Africa in addressing climate change, and our aim is to allocate 60 percent of our financing to the region. We welcome the Green and Resilience Debt Platform as a new tool to unlock climate financing at scale,” at the FfD Forum side event, ‘SDG Sovereign bonds as an instrument to advance alignment and financing for the SDGs’, organized by Sida, and the Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the United Nations, supported by UNDP, UNDESA and the Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) Facility. 

“An impactful combination of support to investment readiness, financial de-risking together with technical assistance has the potential to engage the private sector in providing climate-resilient solutions critical for the development of local and regional green debt ecosystems. We will continue to work with our partners to find the best synergies in this shared challenge,” she further stated.

“The Green and Resilience Debt Platform addresses a fundamental gap in access to green debt capital markets for building climate resilience. Investments in clean energy, water, food security, climate resilient infrastructure will have a multiplier effect in creating green jobs and promoting economic growth,” said Haoliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director UNDP Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.

"Africa's rising economies, bold development ambitions, and growing population mean that its energy use will drastically increase in the coming decades", explained Ahunna Eziakonwa, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Africa. "At a time when countries in Africa are facing mounting challenges to finance their development, this partnership will support their efforts in leveraging the potential of green bonds and unlocking climate finance as a contribution to transitioning to clean energy and creating climate resilience."

For media queries please contact: 

Sangita.khadka@undp.org or guilherme.larsen@undp.org, UNDP Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.