Lab Members
Principals, Advisors & Regional Panel Members
The Lab members select the ideas and provides them with technical and financial support
How it Works
The Lab crowdsources, selects, develops, and launches transformative financial solutions to drive billions of dollars of private investment into climate change action in developing countries.
Three Ingredients to Success
The Lab’s theory of change revolves around the collaboration between public and private sectors, openly sourcing concepts from finance innovators, and a powerful network to move the ideas into action.
Public-Private Collaboration
Strengthened partnership between the public and private sectors builds capacity and knowledge to identify and deploy effective climate finance solutions.
Innovative & Transformative Solutions
Innovative, actionable, catalytic, and financially sustainable solutions reduce risks and barriers to investment in sustainable development.
Mobilizing Finance
Catalytic finance from Lab Members and the broader network enables piloting and implementation of transformative solutions.
Lab Structure
The Lab's structure fosters cross-sectors cooperation and enables solutions to overcome investment barriers
Steering Group
Funders who support the Lab and make strategic decisions about the program.
Secretariat
Climate Policy Initiative manages the partnership and provides analytical support.
Proponents
Innovators who submit ideas and lead their development and implementation.
Observers and Strategic Partners
Help create the needed links outside the Lab to help accelerate implementation.
Working Groups
Members, observers and external experts who advise the idea development phase.
How the Lab works
OCT - DEC
Call for Ideas
The Lab publicizes an open call for innovative sustainable investment solutions.
JAN - FEB
Selection
Lab Members select the most promising ideas to take forward in each annual cycle.
MAR - AUG
Development
Selected ideas benefit from 7 months of analysis, stress-testing, and guidance from experts and investors
SEP
Endorsement & Launch
Lab Members vote to endorse and launch the ideas for piloting.
OCT - ONWARD
Implementation
The ideas move into action and fundraising to launch pilots, with continued support from the Lab network.
-
Actionable
The Lab looks for ideas that demonstrate: (1) the involvement of entities able to implement the idea with relevant experience; (2) a clear pathway to implementation, including a defined timeframe, key activities, and project milestones; (3) identification of potential risks to implementation and strategies for dealing with them.
-
Catalytic
The catalytic potential is the ability of the idea to mobilize private sources of climate finance. Ideas should demonstrate: (1) the potential for scale-up of private investment in the target market; (2) the ability or potential to replicate in other markets.
-
Innovative
Successful Lab ideas demonstrate how the idea addresses barriers to climate finance that have either not yet been addressed or will be addressed more effectively than existing approaches in the market. In essence, the Lab looks for submissions that clearly articulate how the idea submitted is a value-add to other efforts in the space.
-
Financially Sustainable
High-quality Lab ideas will have a clear strategy for phasing out public and philanthropic financial support over time and achieving market viability on commercial terms, even if that runway is long in certain cases. They should also identify challenges and risks to attain these objectives and strategies for managing them.
-
Value Add
The Lab seeks to offer a significant value-add to the success of the selected ideas and teams, ensuring the capabilities of the Lab team and network complement the proposing team’s capabilities and needs. We look forward to working with teams with sufficient time and a functional governance structure to participate fully in the Lab process.
History
Established in 2014, the Lab develops transformational proposals to mobilize private investment at scale, supporting nations and businesses to access finance for tackling their climate goals.
-
June
2014
Lab is created
The Lab was created by the UK, U.S., and Germany in partnership with major development finance institutions, key private sector actors, and several climate finance donor governments (Denmark, France, Japan, the Netherlands, and Norway).
-
November
2015
India program launched
In coordination with the Indian, US, and UK governments, the Lab launched its first regional program in India in November 2015. The India Innovation Lab for Green Finance, which operates as an extension of the Global Lab, aims to provide concrete solutions to the unique financing challenges to investment in green infrastructure in India.
-
November
2015
The Lab presents the Fire Awards
Finance for Resilience (later, the Fire Awards) was a competitive process to launch new interventions demonstrating the potential to ramp up new finance for climate-friendly projects. For two cycles, Fire was driven by BloombergNEF. CPI served as secretariat and analytical provider for two more cycles. The Lab’s portfolio includes six Fire winners.
-
October
2016
Brazil program launched
The Lab expanded its regional focus with the launch of the Brazil program under the auspices of the Brazil-U.S. Climate Change Working Group, led by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Department of State. The program aims to launch transformative investment solutions that can drive funds for Brazil’s national climate priorities.
-
October
2017
Coordinated expansion under one umbrella
Following the launch of the India and Brazil programs, the Lab began a coordinated effort to bring all the Lab programs under one umbrella. This drove the support for past and present ideas by bringing them to a one-stop shop and clarifying and fortifying the Lab’s reputation to leverage momentum for strategic growth.
-
October
2018
Consolidated hub-and-spoke model
In order to build on its depth of policy and market expertise and ensure buy-in from local investors and stakeholders, the Lab formally implemented a ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ model. It consists of a core Global Lab and dedicated regional Lab programs that source and develop regionally-focused climate finance ideas.
-
October
2021
UN Global Climate Action Award
The Lab won the 10th-anniversary edition of the United Nations Global Climate Action Awards, which recognizes the most innovative, scalable, and replicable examples of action to tackle climate change. The 11 award-winning projects fall within three focus areas: Climate Neutral Now, Financing for Climate Friendly Investment, and Climate Leaders.