The Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific (IF-CAP) is a strategic initiative to mobilize climate finance at scale and accelerate climate action in Asia and the Pacific. It features a pioneering guarantee mechanism, which will enhance ADB’s lending capacity through financial leverage, and enable ADB to make more resources available for investments in climate mitigation and adaptation across the region. Every $1 contribution in guarantees from financing partners enables ADB to lend $4.5 in climate finance for high-impact climate change projects. IF-CAP will also provide traditional grants to support project preparation, capacity building, and knowledge sharing. IF-CAP is a financing partnership facility that blends multi-partner trust funds, single-partner trust funds, bilateral guarantees and risk participations, and other partnerships.
The IF-CAP Financing Partnership Facility (IF-CAP FPF) was approved by the ADB Board of Directors in April 2023, and launched at the 2023 Annual Meeting in Incheon with multiple governments expressing support.
In June 2023, following the announcement of a $35 million contribution by the philanthropy Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) to ADB to support shared energy and climate change priorities, the GEAPP Energy Access and Transition Trust Fund was established under the IF-CAP Financing Partnership Facility.
After extensive discussions with IF-CAP partners throughout 2024, the IF-CAP Guarantee Mechanism became effective on 12 November 2024. ADB held an IF-CAP kick-off event at the Conference of the Parties 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan to mark the commencement of its operations, together with partners from the governments of Australia, Denmark, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. At the end of the year, the total guarantee size of IF-CAP was about $2 billion. The first IF-CAP enabled project was committed in December 2024. The IF-CAP Grant Trust Fund also became operational in 2024.