The latest issue of the Revista Información Comercial Española (ICE) has dedicated a space to address “Innovative climate finance in the Mediterranean: The PLIFF programme”, through a detailed article written by Enrique Manzanares, Commercial Technician and State Economist and member of the PLIFF Incubation Facility. In his publication, the author highlights the contribution of the Development Institute of Loyola University in the methodological design and evaluation of the programme.
The PLIFF programme is an initiative aimed at financing investments with high climate and social impact in the sub-national entities of the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean, particularly in areas of special importance for the conservation of biodiversity and climate vulnerability.
According to Manzanares, “one of the innovations of the PLIFF is that it incorporates a systematic use of blending (a mixture of various financial sources and instruments) according to the specific financial needs of each project”. In this way, “the resources obtained are channelled through five specialised instruments for financing technical assistance, equity, debt, guarantees and venture capital for local start-ups”.
Moreover, adds the author of the article, “another innovative aspect of the programme is the collaborative use of the differentiated management skills of the different actors involved, and many of these skills have to be used in the design phase of the PLIFF piloted by the Incubation Facility. For this reason, the technical assistance fund has an unusually large amount of resources at its disposal (30 million EUR)”.
Within the framework of this technical assistance instrument, the Development Institute of Loyola University (Fundación ETEA) has been contracted to design the impact assessment mechanism of the PLIFF programme. For the validation of the design, it will be applied to the portfolio of projects to be funded during the first year of operation of the programme in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.
Fundación ETEA’s contribution to the methodological design
The PLIFF Technical Assistance Facility is already operational to finance the initial phase of the programme and its initial presentation at COP27 in November 2022. With an envelope of 30 million foreseen for this instrument, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the official cooperation agencies of Spain and France have already committed 500,000 euros, resources that will be reinforced by contributions from the GCF, among other donors.
Among the activities financed, Fundación ETEA participates in the design of the project selection methodology and KPIs (key performance indicators), accompanying organisations such as ANIMA, Gold Standard and POSEIDON.
Likewise, in collaboration with the ANIMA network and experts from the North of the Mediterranean with direct experience in this type of contracts, especially some linked to Spanish (Andalusia) and French (Région Sud) subnationals, Fundación ETEA also participates in the training of civil servants and municipal managers or subnational entities beneficiaries of the projects, in terms of strengthening regulatory frameworks and the design and management of infrastructure concession contracts.
Together with Enrique Manzanares, who acts as multilateral coordinator between the programme and Fundación ETEA, the team of researchers involved in this technical assistance is formed by Mª José Vázquez, Pablo Brañas, Vicente González, José Manuel Martín, Gonzalo Sola and Diego González.
About the PAMEX Local Investment Financing Facility (PLIFF)
In 2010, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the NGO R20 (an international organisation that brings together regions and municipalities active against climate change), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Gold Standard organisation promoted the Subnational Climate Fund (SCF) and in 2021 the National Governments of the Mediterranean accepted President Macron’s invitation and signed the Plan d’Action Méditerranée Exemplaire (PAMEX).
From the convergence of these two initiatives comes the PLIFF programme, a public-private initiative born at the IUCN General Assembly in September 2021 and approved at the COP 25 summit in Glasgow by the national governments of the northern shore (Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Monaco), the EU Commission (DG NEAR), the leading NGOs in Mediterranean conservation (UfM, IUCN, Plan Bleu, ANIMA, PAM), the major global climate funds (GCF and GEF) and the coordination of R20.