ADB Highlights Vital Role of Blended Finance in Mobilizing Climate Capital at Sustainable Finance Summit

On 6 April 2023, ADB General Counsel Thomas Clark spoke at the Institute of International Finance's (IIIF) Sustainable Finance Summit in Tokyo. Mr. Clark stressed the need to deploy public sector funds to leverage the significant amounts of private capital required to achieve net zero in Asia and the Pacific. He highlighted how ADB can address the bankability gap—through risk participation, concessional debt and equity, and contractual subordination—as well as enhance legal and regulatory regimes to create the necessary pre-conditions and incentives for private capital. Alternate Executive Director Keiko Takahashi took note of the needs of the financial institutions and private sector in mobilizing transition finance. 

Mr. Clark and Christina Pak, Principal Counsel and Team Leader of the Office of General Counsel's Law and Policy Reform Program, also discussed climate change issues with students from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy, focusing on how they can equip themselves as future policymakers to help address the greatest challenge of the 21st century.