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The Climate Investment Fund

The Climate Investment Fund is Norway’s most important tool for accelerating the global energy transition. By investing in renewable energy, storage and transmission, the fund aims to maximize avoided emissions in emerging markets with large emissions from coal and other fossil power production. 

Renewable energy has been a key investment area for Norfund since inception. In 2022, Norfund was also given a new climate mandate by the government, through managing the Climate Investment Fund. While we continue to invest in renewable energy under our development mandate to enable job creation and combat poverty, the climate mandate is specifically aimed at maximizing avoided emissions.  

Key figures 

The Climate Investment Fund has demonstrated its effectiveness as a powerful tool for combating climate change. In 2023 alone, it invested in projects projected to avoid 8.5 million tons of CO2 emissions annually – equivalent to one-sixth of Norway’s total annual emissions. Since its inception, the fund has so far delivered an annual return of 14.4 percent (IRR) in investment currency.

14.7
million tons C02e

annual avoided emissions

2.2
million tons CO2e

avoided emissions in 2023 from operational power plants

24.4
%

annual returns

Management

Norfund manages the Climate Investment Fund on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It receives an annual allocation of one billion NOK from the state budget, which Norfund matches with an additional one billion NOK from our own capital. The investments under the Climate Investment Fund are made under Norfund’s own name, but the fund’s investments and portfolio are managed separately from Norfund’s other activities. 

Minister for International Development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim at the launch of Norfund’s first Climate Investment Fund deal in March 2022.

Aim

The Climate Investment Fund aims to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions from coal fired power and other fossil energy production. Through investments in renewable energy and enabling technologies, the fund seeks to support economic growth built on low carbon technologies in emerging markets where emissions are large or expected to rise substantially. 

As with Norfund’s usual operations, the aim is to help activate investments that would otherwise not be made. 

Our ambitions

In our strategy 2022-2026, our defined ambitions are: 

9
GW

new renewable energy capacity financed

14
MILLION

tons CO2 avoided per year (equivalent to 30% of Norway’s annual GHG emissions)

Strategy

The Climate Investment Funds invests in both large-scale renewable energy projects, such as solar and wind farms, and smaller commercial and industrial (C&I) opportunities, such as rooftop solar installations. Additionally, we may invest in enabling technologies with significant climate impact, including storage and transmission. Our focus is on sectors where Norfund has strong expertise, can provide added value, and where viable investment opportunities exist in our target markets. 

We primarily invest in equity, with a 20-35% ownership interest, with individual investments of around 25-150 million dollars. The choice of investments will be governed by where Norfund has competence and can make the largest possible difference. We prioritize 8 core countries: South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. 

The Climate Investment Fund may take a somewhat higher technology commercialization risk than Norfund’s development mandate. In this way, we can help accelerate the implementation of clean energy technologies in our markets through investments that private investors hesitate to take on alone. 

The Norfund investee SAEL is dedicated to providing sustainable and affordable energy solutions by converting agricultural waste into energy and promoting renewable energy projects.

Partner with Norfund

Bjørnar Baugerud

Bjørnar Baugerud

Head of Climate Investment Fund Renewable Energy

Investments

Filters:
Investment Country Sector Year** Instrument Status Mandate MNOK*
Candi Solar Global Renewable Energy 2024 Equity Active Climate 213.9
Enel Coral India Renewable Energy 2022 Equity Active Climate 439.1
Enel Thar Solar India Renewable Energy 2022 Equity Active Climate 281.0
Fourth Partner Energy India Renewable Energy 2023 Equity Active Climate 431.5
Gadag Transmission India Renewable Energy 2023 Equity Active Climate 201.6
H1 Capital South Africa Renewable Energy 2021 Equity Active Climate 212.7
H1 EDF NFBII South Africa Renewable Energy 2022 Loans Active Climate 187.6
H1 Kenhardt South Africa Renewable Energy 2022 Loans Active Climate 434.4
Koppal Narendra India Renewable Energy 2022 Equity Active Climate 69.2
Orbital Energy Sri Lanka Renewable Energy 2024 Equity Active Climate 43.0
Pele Green Energy South Africa Renewable Energy 2023 Equity Active Climate 394.9
SAEL India Renewable Energy 2022 Equity Active Climate 1148.7
SEACEF II Regional Renewable Energy 2023 Funds Active Climate 106.3
Volta INTL Sri Lanka Renewable Energy 2023 Equity Active Climate 126.8
Xurya Indonesia Renewable Energy 2024 Equity Active Climate 270.3