Room 1
Scaling Cleantech Through Innovative Financing
The cleantech sector’s dominant venture-capital financing model hasn’t historically demonstrated strong performance, but new sources of public and private capital may be on the way.
Mafalda Duarte is the head of the $8.3 billion Climate Investment Funds (CIF).
Under her leadership, the CIF has doubled down on work to accelerate global action on climate change, from first-of-its-kind investments and innovative, pilot approaches to a strong emphasis on learning and sharing of knowledge and technical expertise. She is currently leading the strategic and policy efforts to take the tried-and-tested CIF model to the next level, including through new mechanisms to mobilize finance from capital markets.
Recognizing that developing countries are at risk of bearing the brunt of climate change-related impacts – from droughts to floods and the human suffering that comes with them – Mafalda has made helping countries build climate-smart, resilient economies the focus of her career. Prior to taking the helm at the CIF in 2014, Mafalda led policy and corporate work and managed climate-related portfolios at the African Development Bank and the World Bank.