Climate Finance
The fund will focus on strengthening renewable energy adoption and capabilities in Central America
The Calvert Foundation is investing $5 million in the Honduras Renewable Energy Financing Facility (H-REFF) — a $25 million fund that backs small-scale renewables projects in Central America.
“As the economies of Central America have grown, their use of fossil fuels for transportation and electricity has become unsustainably high,” the Calvert Foundation notes on its blog.
“Development has come with a cost of rising emissions, worsening air and water pollution and negatively impacting health.” Yet only a sliver of impact capital and philanthropic funding is focused on social and environmental causes in Central America.
H-REFF was seeded with $7 million from two funds within the Inter-American Development Bank (here and here), and is also backed by the Global Environment Facility and private investors. H-REFF has so far made a previously undisclosed investment in Kingo Energy in Guatemala, which provides pay-as-you-go off-grid solar products.
It will target similar opportunities in hydro, wind, biomass, and biogas.
