Deutsche Bank has signed an accreditation master agreement with the Green Climate Fund (GCF), enabling the bank to receive and use GCF capital and raise further funds from private sector investors to support action on climate change.

The agreement was signed in London by Nicolas Moreau, head of Deutsche Asset Management and member of the management board of Deutsche Bank AG, and executive director of the GCF’s Secretariat, Howard Bamsey.

The Green Climate Fund works through accredited entities to channel its resources to projects and programmes. Deutsche Bank is the second commercial bank to sign an accreditation master agreement with GCF.

The GCF has already approved the first funding proposal from Deutsche Bank at its 14th meeting in Songdo, South Korea, in October 2016. The Universal Green Energy Access Programme combines capital from the GCF with private sector investment to finance renewable electricity access for nearly half a million people and small and medium sized enterprises in cooperation with local banks in Africa.

The GCF’s anchor investment of US$78.4 million allows Sustainable Investments, the group within Deutsche Asset Management that manages environmental and social assets, to raise a total of US$300 million in capital.

The proposal has been endorsed by the Governments of Benin, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and Tanzania, which is where the programme will initially focus investments in the first three years.

Photo courtesy of Deutsche Bank Flickr.