Overview

This seminar will enable participants to better understand and navigate the important and fast changing universes of Climate Change and Green Financing, and also to develop strategies to access available “Green” funding.

Individuals, institutions, and countries are increasingly confronted with the realities of Climate Change and the “Green Financing” funding gap to help address this crisis. The developmental and funding priorities for emerging economies are significant. Sorting through these priorities and funding sources poses many challenges for professionals and government officials who are working in a variety of sectors, but are expected to understand and incorporate climate change and green finance initiatives into their particular sector or focus area.

This seminar is designed to incorporate perspectives from different sectors (also by sharing the participants’ experiences and interests), and then to focus on communal cross-cutting issues. These include understanding the approaches of the various Donors and Private Sector to Climate Change and Green Finance; in addition to focus on the developing Legal, Regulatory and Institutional frameworks; and also how to access Green Finance, all areas which impact everyone working in the field equally.

Climate Change and Green Finance will increasingly be the lenses through which international development is seen, and this training will provide participants with a firm foundation and understanding of this universe, and also how to manage the inevitable changes in navigating the Green Funding complexities. The seminar will benefit professionals, practitioners, and other government officials with any responsibility, or interest, in this area – particularly from emerging economies

Format

The seminars are currently offered both in-person and online simultaneously, at the choice of the participant. This choice must be indicated at the time of registration. A small number of courses are scheduled to be delivered exclusively in person or online, and are indicated as such in the 2024 schedule. In-Person Only seminars usually start at 9:30 am Washington D.C. time. Daily sessions usually end at 4:00 pm. Breaks (including the lunch break) are allocated as appropriate. Online Only seminars will be delivered through five (for 1-week course) or ten (for 2-weeks course) live online sessions via videoconferencing platform. Each session will last approximately 3.5 hours and will be scheduled to start within a time window of 7:00 am – 8:30 am Washington D.C. time. Hybrid In-Person/Online seminars will start at a time most convenient to both in-person and online participants, and will generally follow the In-Person seminar format. We expect the classes to be highly interactive and can include presentations, case studies and exercises.

Course Outline

Overview of Current Climate Change “Universe”

• The current core concepts and issues
• Economic, sustainability and sectoral concerns
• Introduction to Climate Risk Management
• Additional International Development concerns, including for instance Gender Equality and Climate Change (a major UN’s initiative)
• Food security

Key policies, Priorities and Directions of Donors

• Current strategies, action plans and funding priorities of different Donors
• Understanding the shift from efforts to only “green” projects, to greening entire economies, and from focusing on inputs, to focusing on impacts. The further focus on (i) integrating climate and development; (ii) identifying and prioritizing action on the largest mitigation and adaptation opportunities; and (iii) using those to drive climate finance and leverage private capital in ways that deliver the most results;
• Examining the WBG’s Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development (GRID) approach. This approach aims at advancing climate change whilst simultaneously pursuing poverty eradication and shared prosperity, through a sustainability lens
• The increasing emphasis on Information Management, such as the “World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal” (or CCKP) which is intended to serve as a ‘one stop shop’ for climate-related information, data, and tools.

Accessing Green Finance

• Green Finance Instruments and Products
• Discussion of strategies to access Green Funding
• Focus areas, including Adaptation Finance; Mitigation Finance and more
• Green Finance risks and mitigation
• Application of Green Finance in different sectors and products, with discussion of specific current illustrative project examples from a variety of Donors within a wide geographical sphere
• What are the Donors looking for in a potential project
• Discussion and potential role of the various Funds aimed at providing Green Finance.
• Harmonizing methodologies and approaches

Legal, Regulatory and Institutional Aspects

• International Treaties, Protocols, other Agreements and the relevant legal institutions
• Regional and domestic legal and regulatory frameworks and institutions
• Legal and regulatory environments to enable growth and sustainability, for instance to make low-carbon investments commercially viable
• Green economy impacts on contracts, contract drafting, implementation and managing legal risks
• Utilizing opportunities presented by Climate Change and Green Finance to develop sectors and capacity building, for instance to develop the Capital Markets
• Dispute and conflict resolution; and the developing concept of Climate Justice

Role of Private Sector and other Stakeholders

• The private sector as a key part of the “Access to Green Finance” focus
• Understanding and making the Business Case for funding by private entities
• Discussion of specific initiatives by the Donors to mobilize the Private Sector for climate financing
• The role of Bar Associations, other professional and industry organizations and civil society
• Benefiting from the reality that the private sector are funders but also consumers – they are looking for ways to limit their own carbon footprint (and more) which presents opportunities for cooperation, also within the context of Public-Private Partnerships
• The very important roles for consultation and effective communication

Course Advisor

Guly Sabahi is Senior Advisor, Climate Finance, for the NDC Partnership Support Unit. Working across both the NDC Partnership’s Country Engagement and Knowledge and Learning teams, Guly focuses on providing strategic advice and thought leadership to the climate finance efforts of the NDC Partnership to facilitate private sector investment for the implementation of the NDCs.

Guly has 20 years of experience advising private sector and public sector clients on energy and infrastructure projects internationally, particularly in emerging markets. Prior to joining the NDC Partnership, Guly was a senior executive in an international engineering firm, working on infrastructure and energy projects for governments in the Middle East and Africa. Previously, Guly practiced for 15 years at Big Law (including as a law firm partner), where she advised clients on equity and debt financing transactions and projects (including PPPs, JVs, M&A, PE fund formation) in energy and infrastructure sectors in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Guly has also led the capacity building programs for government officials at the International Law Institute (ILI) – to facilitate energy and infrastructure projects, particularly, in Africa. She has also served as Vice President and Director of the Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN), where she spearheaded the AIEN’s sustainability taskforce. Over the years, Guly has chaired, and presented at, a number of professional events – focusing on energy transition, PPPs and infrastructure finance, investments in emerging markets, and ESG.