Estimating publicly-mobilised private finance for climate action: A South African case study

This study estimates and analyses publicly-mobilised private finance for climate action in South Africa, between 2010 and 2015. The mobilisation effect of public climate finance on private finance is first estimated through an analysis and attribution of project-level co-finance data. A pilot-methodology (the investor perspective) then expands the analysis to also incorporate the mobilisation effect of financial support provided by South African policies in two sectors: renewable energy and energy efficiency. Results suggest that, in the South African context, domestic public actors play the major mobilisation role by providing support through targeted policies, and to a lesser extent by committing project-level cofinance. However, even the investor perspective does not provide a full picture of mobilisation as the methodology does not attribute a role to finance committed by bilateral and multilateral public finance providers via upstream financial intermediaries (e.g. funds and credit lines). Further, there is qualitative evidence to suggest that capacity building activities (both international and domestic) have an indirect mobilisation effect on private finance over time. Methodological work and improved data availability are, however, required to quantify this effect.