In October 2011, Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and the World Bank Group, in collaboration with China Light & Power and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, hosted the inaugural meeting of "the San Giorgio Group" (SGG), a new working group of key financial intermediaries and institutions actively engaged in green, low-emissions finance. Drawing on the experience of its members, detailed analysis and tracking of existing green investments, the San Giorgio Group will distil lessons learned from the evolving financing practices and provide valuable insights on how to scale up climate finance and spend available resources more wisely.

The direction of the group going forward will include:

  • the role of public money;
  • the best delivery mechanisms for public money;
  • the alignment of international and national public investment flows with each other and with private investments;
  • ensuring learning.

    • This will aim to provide credible information on how to ramp up public expenditures, integrate national and international government capital streams, leverage public funds with private flows efficiently, and invest the aggregate wisely.

    These objectives will be further pursued through future roundtable discussions and other events that will be organized on a regular basis and supported by analytical work and outreach between meetings. The knowledge and guidance produced by the Group will help to ensure that the financing of green and low-emission development becomes more than just a marginal phenomenon. Climate Policy Initiative is taking the lead in convening the San Giorgio Group with the World Bank Group.

    The objective of this event is to continue the lively debate which was started during the Venice meeting to further streamline the SGG approach and to discuss the early results from the first set of SGG case studies, which include: the Clean Technology Fund investments for the Ouarzazate concentrated solar power plant in Morocco; the Walney Offshore Windfarm project led by DONG Energy alongside Scottish and Southern Energy and a consortium of PGGM and Dutch Ampère Equity Fund, managed by Triodos Investment Management; and PROSOL, a joint initiative of Tunisia, Italy and UNEP which aims to accelerate the penetration of solar water heating in Tunisia by targeting domestic financial institutions.