New partnerships with financial sector to unlock growth in UK and overseas
Source: gov.uk (2025-02-03)

UK Minister for Development announces funding and partnerships to deliver Sustainable Development Goals and domestic growth, in speech at London Stock Exchange.

- Government to partner with UK financial sector to deliver on the Plan for Change by tackling climate change and driving growth at home.
- Minister for Development Anneliese Dodds pays tribute to the UK financial services sector, which “powers jobs and growth across the UK”.
- New funding and partnerships will unlock investment opportunities, as part of a new development approach supporting sustainable economic growth overseas.
Efforts to address the climate crisis and boost growth in the Global South and at home will be enhanced under a partnership approach between the government and the UK financial sector, the UK’s Minister for Development Anneliese Dodds announced today (Monday 3 February).

Speaking at the London Stock Exchange, Minister Dodds praised the “expertise, experience and dynamism” of the UK’s financial services sector, and pledged to put this expertise “at the heart of how we meet the opportunities and challenges of our time”, including accelerating delivery of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These seek to address global challenges, including poverty, inequality, and climate change, to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all, by 2030.

Minister Dodds set out how investment in the Global South is an opportunity for UK financial services “to marry investment in the economies and technologies of the future, with the experience and expertise of the City of London”, adding that the government will hold up its end of the bargain by working internationally to reform the global financial system to provide greater opportunity and stability.

Minister for Development Anneliese Dodds said:

With businesses and the government working hand in hand to drive investment in the Global South, we can unlock growth, jobs, trade, investment, and pride in our economy overseas and here at home.

This government is enabling the financial services sector to flourish and use its expertise and depth of capital to invest in the markets and technologies of the future.

Through partnerships like this, we will deliver on the Plan for Change, drive domestic growth, and create a world free from poverty on a liveable planet.

The Minister announced up to £100 million for the UK’s flagship public markets programme MOBILIST. This programme will provide businesses focused on delivering the SDGs with the anchor funding and expert advice they need to list on stock exchanges around the world, including in London, allowing them to attract significant sums of additional private investment.

This is expected to generate between £400 million and £600 million of new investments in businesses across emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. These investments will support economic growth, sustainable development, and climate action in local markets.

She also celebrated the issuance of the first Climate Investment Fund (CIF) Capital Markets Mechanism (CCMM) bond last month, which raised $500 million (approximately £400 million) for energy and clean technology projects in low- and middle-income countries. The CCMM, launched by the Prime Minister at COP29, is a new financial mechanism to leverage future loan repayments by issuing bonds on capital markets.

As today’s announcements demonstrate, this government’s modern approach to development focuses on harnessing the power of the private sector in mobilising the finance emerging markets need to grow. This will create future export markets for the UK and new overseas investment opportunities, supporting domestic growth and delivering on the government’s Plan for Change. It will also make the UK safer and more stable by tackling the drivers of conflict, climate crises and economic decline in partner countries.

UK Climate Minister Kerry McCarthy said:

This is a historic moment for tackling the climate crisis, with the first bond raising $500 million to accelerate the global clean energy transition and support the flow of climate finance to developing countries.

Public finance alone cannot tackle the scale of this challenge, and this mechanism will help leverage the private finance needed to support those on the frontline of a changing climate.

Its listing in the UK positions London as a green finance capital. By working with partners such as the World Bank the UK can drive the action needed to grow the economy and reap the rewards of net zero.

Minister Dodds made the announcements during a speech to the UK financial sector, including pension funds, insurers, banks, and development finance organisations, after joining a market opening ceremony at the London Stock Exchange.

Julia Hoggett, CEO of the London Stock Exchange, added:

Flows of investment are vital to generating sustainable growth both in the UK and around the world. London’s capital markets have long played a leading role in driving flows of capital to where they need to go, and we welcome the focus on fuelling growth and supporting the just transition to net zero.

As part of these efforts, we are proud to celebrate the listing of the Climate Investment Funds’ Capital Markets Mechanism on the London Stock Exchange. This pioneering bond issuance programme not only brings a new financing tool to our market but is facilitating critical investment in sustainable and clean assets.

As part of the speech, the Minister also welcomed a first-of-its-kind report (https://www.iigcc.org/resources/report-uk-climate-finance-hub-2025) from UK institutional investors, co-led by Mercer, Aviva Investors and the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) and supported by the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), on scaling private capital for climate action in emerging markets, and announced a new taskforce to take its recommendations forward.

The speech comes a week after British International Investment (BII), which is funded by the FCDO, launched a call for institutional investors to work with them to develop solutions that will boost the flow of private capital into emerging markets, which are often considered too risky by global investors, but can offer attractive investment opportunities for growth, diversification and impact for the climate transition.

Tariye Gbadegesin, Chief Executive Officer, Climate Investment Funds, said:

The UK has long recognized that to transform our energy systems at the scale and speed required, we must deploy public money smartly. That means putting climate finance to work where it’s most needed: investing in promising new technologies and enabling new clean energy markets, to spur private sector interest at scale.

As a founding member of the Climate Investment Funds and a proud partner in the launch of our next-generation CIF Capital Markets Mechanism today, the UK is demonstrating its commitment to bold new models of public-private partnership for both people and planet.

Benoit Hudon, Mercer’s UK President and CEO said:

UK institutional investors, as part of the wider financial and professional services ecosystem are uniquely placed to help finance development projects in emerging markets and developing economies, which will also support UK growth. The report published today, co-led by Mercer, sets out a range of measures the UK Government and finance industry can take to secure the UK’s position as the world’s leading destination for transition finance.

Background

The Minister’s full speech will be made available on gov.uk following the event: Search - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/search/all?parent=foreign-commonwealth-development-office&order=updated-newest&public_timestamp%5Bfrom%5D%5Bday%5D=3&public_timestamp%5Bfrom%5D%5Bmonth%5D=2&public_timestamp%5Bfrom%5D%5Byear%5D=2025&content_purpose_supergroup%5B%5D=news_and_communications&organisations%5B%5D=foreign-commonwealth-development-office)

Photos to be available on FCDO Flickr later today.

About MOBILIST

A flagship UK government programme, MOBILIST (Mobilising Institutional Capital Through Listed Product Structures) identifies and invests in scalable, replicable transactions on public markets that help deliver the climate transition and the Sustainable Development Goals. MOBILIST invests capital on commercial terms, delivers technical assistance, conducts research, and builds partnerships to catalyse investment in newly listed products. Since its inception, MOBILIST has invested £87 million in equity and equity commitments, directly mobilising £247.5 million in private capital.

Examples of initiatives supported by MOBILIST include:
- Citicore Renewable Energy Company: in June 2024, MOBILIST supported the Philippines in its transition to renewable energy through a £9.9 million local currency investment in the initial public offering (IPO) of Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation (CREC) on the Philippines Stock Exchange, Inc. (PSE), helping to decarbonise the Philippines power generation fleet by rapidly rolling out wind and solar, adding 2.3GW by the end of 2025 and 5GW by 2028. MOBILIST’s investment supported £63.7 million of private investment, a mobilisation ratio of 6.25.
- Bayfront Infrastructure Capital IV: MOBILIST’s £4 million equity investment in September 2023 into a $410 million securitisation vehicle that listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange and enabled the greening of bank balance sheets in Southeast Asia and attracted international investors into developing countries’ infrastructure. MOBILIST’s investment supported £90.5 million in private investment, a mobilisation ratio of 22.9.
About the CIF & CCMM

The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) were launched in 2008 to invest in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) climate projects. To date, the CIF has leveraged over $64bn from $12.3bn of donor contributions, supporting over 400 projects in over 80 countries. The UK (led by DESNZ) is a leading donor and chairs its Joint Trust Fund Committee.

The CIF Capital Markets Mechanism (CCMM) was launched by the Prime Minister at COP29, and the bonds were issued on the London Stock Exchange in January 2025. It is a new financial mechanism to leverage future loan repayments (reflows) from previous investments made under the CIF’s Clean Technology Fund (CTF), by issuing bonds on capital markets.

Examples of investments made by the CTF include:
- In South Africa, CTF invested $430.9 million (with co-financing of $2.28 billion). Key achievements include supporting Sub-Saharan Africa’s first large-scale battery storage project and increasing clean energy share in the power grid. This has led to a reduction of 1 million tons of CO2 annually. Notable projects include the KaXu, Xina, and Khi solar plants and the 2023 launch of Africa’s largest battery energy storage system.
- In Thailand, CTF invested $85.7 million (with co-financing of $1.1 billion). This funding supported over 480MW of solar and wind capacity, reducing 160,000 tons of CO2 annually. Over eight years, wind capacity increased seven-fold, and solar capacity more than doubled. CTF also helped finance the Theppana Wind Power Project and kickstarted the Solar Power Company Group to develop solar farms across northeastern Thailand.
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