Collaborating with EMDEs to scale clean power

By Green Finance Institute | December 16, 2025

The fast-growing populations and economies of developing markets are at the heart of the battle to get global warming under control. They are also where social and economic development needs are most acute. In Sub-Sahara African alone, 600 million people have zero access to electricity. Despite Africa representing 60% of the best solar resources in the world, only 15% of total global investment in clean energy went to Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDE) outside China last year.[1]

Only 15% of total global investment in clean energy went to EMDEs outside China last year

But if the problem is clear, the solution isn’t talking about aspirational policy goals. We have done that already and now we need to build on those foundations by doing the hard yards of bridging that implementation gap in individual countries, regions and industry sectors. This is where practical application of the Transactions to Transitions (T2T) approach comes into play.

The Global Clean Power Alliance (GCPA) is an alliance of countries and organisations from the developing and developed economies with shared high ambition for accelerated energy transitions. The GCPA has launched a Finance Mission to support EMDE countries to access higher flows of private capital, including a focus on developing and deepening local financial markets.

The Finance Mission published an Energy Investment Planning Roadmap at COP30 in Brazil, authored by the GFI and the World Bank. Using the investment planning stages that form the basis of the T2T Global Investment Greenprint, it looks at the common reasons why the implementation gap persists and practical steps to close it. Given the scale of the energy and investment gap in EMDEs and public capital scarcity, private capital providers need to do the heavy lifting.

That will only happen sustainably and at scale for an appropriate risk-adjusted return on the investment of private money and time. Will a bank’s lending team put time and effort into their internal credit assessment process? Can local and international fund managers see a potential growth market, with sufficient investable assets to raise a renewable energy fund for local and international pension capital? Not if projects are confined to sporadic pilots which don’t form part of an overarching strategy for sectoral transition.

The positive corollary is that when the key building blocks of a conducive investment enabling environment are put in place – if necessary, alongside targeted use of concessional finance derisking instruments – the capital, the developers, and the investors are all there and can move quickly. T2T highlights the different elements required to go from transactions to energy transitions in less mature markets as well as less mature sectors.

The good news is that there are success stories to draw on. Several are highlighted in the roadmap, drawing on the experience and leadership already on show in the Global South. There is South Africa’s repeatable, independent procurement process for utility scale renewable energy. Cheaper, cleaner energy is now available in the Maldives after swapping out fossil fuel island generation for solar energy and battery storage. Local currency clean energy secondary market investment vehicles are being created in some more developed EMDE financial markets. New country and regional platforms are being established to deliver energy transitions under strong national leadership, such as the BIP, Brazil’s recently established national energy transition investment vehicle.[2]

Given the scale of the energy and investment gap in EMDEs and public capital scarcity, private capital providers need to do the heavy lifting.

The next phase of the Finance Mission is to implement the T2T approach that is set out in the GFI’s Global Investment Greenprint. Over the next two years, the Finance Mission will support EMDE governments in their efforts to pursue coordinated, sustained and committed action with the involvement of all relevant domestic and international partners required to make this work a success. The first five country or regional Action Plans were published at COP alongside the Roadmap, with more to follow.[3]

The GFI, in partnership with the World Bank team and others, will now work with both public and private sectors in specific countries and regions to implement these Action Plans. This financially expert and institutionally tailored assistance will respond to country priorities and ambitions and will be adapted to the state of private finance readiness in individual countries.

Specific targeted support could range from financial or other training in relevant institutions; deployment of financial, legal, insurance or other professional experts in support of effective investment planning to assess and develop project pipelines; to embedding GFI, World Bank and other support in-country. This could include GFI coordinating where additional professional expertise is needed, involving other delivery partners.

Our plan is to work thoughtfully and practically to bridge specific investment execution gaps in support of EMDE national ambitions for greater clean energy access and security, and sustainable social and economic development.

This article was originally published in the December edition of Green Finance Quarterly. Read the full publication here. 

[1] IEA – World Energy Investment Analysis (2024)

[2] Brazil Climate and Ecological Transformation Investment Platform

[3] Gov.uk – Global Clean Power Alliance: finance mission country action plans (2025)