SEFI INITIATIVE
BASE and the UN Environmental Program (UNEP) co-founded the Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative (SEFI) with the mission of paving the way for global scale-up of investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. SEFI provided financiers and project developers with tools, support and global networks for investments in sustainable energy.
Changing attitudes and helping mainstream financiers to consider sustainable energy investments are key components of the energy work within UNEP and BASE and were the starting point for SEFI. With support from the United Nations Foundation, SEFI provided targeted information to financiers, while facilitating new economic tools that combine social and environmental factors – both risks and returns – as integral measures of economic performance.
Modelled in part on the UNEP Finance Initiative, SEFI’s strategy was to use this platform and modest amounts of capital to convene financiers, engage them to do jointly what they may have been reluctant to do individually, and to catalyse public-private alliances that together share the costs and lower the barriers to sustainable energy investment.
SEFI provided financiers and project developers with tools, support and global networks for investments in sustainable energy, including numerous reports and the SEF Directory, a database of lenders and investors for sustainable energy.
SEF ALLIANCE
BASE also supported UNEP in establishing the SEF Alliance – an international coalition of public and publicly backed organisations that finance sustainable energy.
Members exchange best practices, pool resources, launch joint projects, and assist other governments in establishing new or similar financing models. The SEF Alliance has produced several reports on financing sustainable energy. The SEF Alliance members were:
The SEF Directory ceased operations in 2015.
