Finance in Motion Targets Decarbonisation with USD 175 Million Public Backing 

Frankfurt am Main, 2 November 2026 – Impact Asset Manager, Finance in Motion, has announced USD 175 million in approved public funding for a programme to help businesses in emerging markets lower carbon emissions and prepare for the effects of climate change. This public capital is intended to mobilise several times that amount in additional investment from institutional investors into cleaner industry and food production. An initial investment round is targeted for 2027.

The public funding was approved by the Green Climate Fund, considered the world’s largest dedicated climate fund that supports developing countries in tackling climate change. Finance in Motion is also working alongside the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the UN agency that supports sustainable industrial development, to bring the programme to market.

Financing will support the brown-to-green transition, helping businesses reduce carbon emissions by changing how they use energy, manufacture goods and produce food. It will also help businesses prepare for the effects of climate change.

For institutional investors, including pension funds and insurers, the programme offers a way to finance these changes while seeking returns consistent with their requirements. Through a blended finance approach, it intends to use public sector capital to try absorbing risks that the market cannot yet price effectively, allowing institutional investors to take risks they can understand and price accordingly. Under the planned structure, the Green Climate Fund’s investment would absorb losses before private investors’ capital to a certain extent. This is intended to make participation more accessible to institutional investors.

"The businesses require investment to modernize their operations while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions,” said Sylvia Wisniwski, CEO of Finance in Motion. “This initiative draws on Finance in Motion’s 20-year investment track record in emerging markets, with less than 0.5% accumulated losses since inception1. Our experience shows that blended finance structures can mobilise private capital by combining public funding with investment expertise and disciplined risk management. We are bringing that experience to financing the brown-to-green transition.”

Investments will span ten emerging markets, across four continents, through local financial institutions and directly in companies and projects, spreading investment exposure across countries, sectors and project types rather than concentrating it in a single market. Financing will support energy and resource efficiency, waste reduction, renewable power, and a switch to electricity or cleaner fuels. In food production, it will support methods that lower emissions and help businesses adapt to changing climate conditions.

“Institutional investors seeking to finance the brown-to-green transition need opportunities that offer diversification and scale,” said Melanie Aimer, Chief Commercial Officer at Finance in Motion. “By bringing together investments across emerging markets, this programme aims to meet that need while targeting appropriate risk-adjusted returns and measurable emissions reductions. Public funding can help connect institutional capital with practical improvements in how industry and food production operate.”

The Green Climate Fund’s contribution provides the public funding, underpinning this investment approach.

Kristin Lang, GCF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said:
“This initiative demonstrates how GCF is using blended finance to unlock institutional capital at scale for climate action in developing countries. Across 10 countries, the programme will accelerate the transition to low-emission, climate-resilient industrial and agrifood systems, helping shift entire sectors onto more sustainable development pathways. GCF’s USD 175 million junior equity investment will mobilize three times that amount in senior capital, illustrating how strategic concessional finance can crowd in private investment where it is needed most.”

Alongside investment, a USD 20 million advisory and capacity support facility will help prepare projects for financing and support delivery of measurable climate outcomes. Finance in Motion will help local financial institutions assess opportunities and prepare projects for financing, while UNIDO will support the wider changes in industry and local markets needed for those investments to succeed.

“To support our Member States in transforming industries to be sustainable, resilient and fit for the future, we must mobilize development and private finance at scale”, said UNIDO Director General Gerd Müller. “Blended instruments such as UNIDO’s and Finance in Motion’s initiative are important to reduce risks and direct significantly more capital towards green industrialization to create decent jobs, protect our planet and increase resilience. We must turn climate ambitions into investable opportunities”. 

Over its lifetime, the initiative is expected to attract more than USD 1.9 billion for investments that address climate change, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 31 million tonnes, and help more than 1.4 million people better withstand the effects of climate change.

1 (as of Q4 2025)