Mercer and British International Investment call on asset managers to help scale climate finance in emerging economies 

28 Jan 2025

New mobilisation facility set to unlock hundreds of millions of pounds in private investment

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Attention asset managers: the window for submitting your innovative climate finance proposals is now closed. The deadline for receipt of proposals was 4 March 2025. Read on to find out more about the initiative.
Mercer and British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, are partnering[1] on a new initiative to help scale up climate finance in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). We are calling on the private investment community to help design investment products that seek to address the gap between risk appetite and return thresholds of institutional investors.

Jo Holden, Head of Global Investment Research and Advisory at Mercer sits down with Leslie Maasdorp, CEO at British International Investment (BII) to discuss why mobilisation is so important to tackle the climate funding gap, the investment opportunities they see in emerging markets and developing economies, and how BII is driving investment interest in these countries. 

British International Investment, the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, is launching a new capital mobilisation initiative with the goal of scaling-up climate finance in emerging economies. We, at Mercer, are delighted to have been selected by BII to support their engagement with the global investment community to identify innovative asset management proposals that support the energy transition, and also address some of the hesitancy that institutional investors have about investing in emerging economies. I spoke with Leslie Maasdorp, the CEO of BII, on why mobilisation is so important to them, the investment opportunities they see in emerging economies, and how this mobilisation initiative has the potential to drive change. 

Question 1: Why is mobilisation so important for British International Investment (BII)?

The impact of climate change can be seen worldwide – from severe droughts to extreme weather events, rising sea levels and beyond – while this is felt more acutely in emerging markets and developing countries. 

At BII, we have already mobilised over $1.1 billion  of private capital into climate finance projects between 2021 and 20231. We believe, however, that more can be done. This is a global challenge that requires a global response;  it requires participation from multiple actors.

And it is for this reason that last year, the UK Prime Minister announced a £100 million BII Mobilisation Facility. The goal of this facility is to make it easier for private investors to provide climate finance into emerging markets and developing economies. 

Today, we are calling on  global institutional investors to work in partnership with us to develop solutions that can help to unlock private investment. 

Question 2:  What investment opportunities do BII see in emerging  economies?

Emerging markets are poised to become the main drivers of global economic growth in the coming decades. They currently account for over 60% of the world’s GDP and they are projected to account for 74% of global energy consumption by 2050. 

With this in mind, investing in sectors such as clean energy and infrastructure can offer attractive opportunities for growth, diversification and impact. 

Question 3: How will this mobilisation initiative potentially help drive change? 

We are looking to partner with private investors on new, innovative solutions. We are therefore inviting asset managers to design investment strategies to mobilise deep and long-term pools of capital into emerging markets. 

We are specifically looking for proposals with the strong potential to accelerating private investment and which demonstrate large-scale climate impact. The proposals will be rigorously evaluated by a judging panel of both investment and impactor experts. A shortlist of up to three proposals will then be taken forward for entry into BII’s investment committee process. 

Now the application window will close in March 2025, and BII is looking forward to partnering with you. Together, we can support the drive for global climate transition. Thank you. 

What is driving this initiative?

Increasing the level of private investment into EMDEs is essential to accelerating the global climate transition. Between 2021 and 2022, average annual climate finance flows reached USD 1.3 trillion, yet this represents only 1% of global GDP. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, climate projections indicate a USD 9 trillion requirement by 2030.[2] Significantly more investment is required, particularly in EMDEs that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. 

The private sector has a critical role to play. Accelerating capital flows to these economies is crucial to implementing climate transition across the global economy. Despite offering investment opportunities with potentially significant diversification and impact attributes, global asset allocators often consider these regions to be too high risk. That’s why Mercer and BII are delighted to be partnering to engage the investment community to deliver an innovative and collaborative initiative to help overcome the challenges of channelling institutional capital into EMDEs.

Capital available for successful proposals

Announced by the Prime Minister in September 2024 at the UN General Assembly, BII’s £100m Mobilisation Facility aims to unlock hundreds of millions of pounds of private investment into climate and sustainability-focused investments in these important regions.

BII is ringfencing up to £50m of the Mobilisation Facility for 1-3 proposals sourced from asset managers. In addition to this concessional capital, successful applicants will also have the opportunity to access additional BII funds on a non-concessional basis (1:1 matching or more) in order to maximise the impact and scale of the winning proposal(s).These will be selected through a process run in conjunction with Mercer. BII may consider awarding the whole allocation to one bid, should the proposal demonstrate outstanding deliverables against the criteria found below.

BII anticipates that submissions from asset managers will focus on concessional capital structures that make use of the funds available through the Mobilisation Facility to attract institutional capital alongside driving climate and sustainability-focused objectives in EMDEs. Prioritisation will be given to proposals which solve for investors’ EMDE private market participation constraints (e.g. risk tolerance or returns expectation mismatch)  in addition to EMDE deal origination.

Contact us if you have any further questions

For general enquiries, please contact: bii_mf@mercer.com. We look forward to working together to scale up climate finance in EMDEs.

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How to contact us for more information

For general enquiries, please contact: bii_mf@mercer.com. If you would like to speak to a consultant about general investment enquiries, fill in a contact form.
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1. This webpage has been created directly because of our client engagement by BII.

2. Source: Climate Policy Initiative – November 2023.