GCPF has created a worldwide climate finance community
As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Global Climate Partnership Fund, we are featuring personalities who brought this Fund into being and have shaped it over the past decade. Antoine Prédour, Head of GCPF, looks back on the Fund’s major achievements.
Antoine Prédour manages the GCPF global team at the Fund’s investment manager responsAbility. He is in charge of relationships with the governance bodies and oversees the Fund’s business development and strategy.
Looking back at the past five years, how has GCPF evolved under responsAbility’s management?
We started out with a small project team who ventured into a completely new area of activity. Today, we have 25 staff working from a number of regional offices and featuring a whole variety of backgrounds, fully dedicated to GCPF. Over the past five years, this team has achieved remarkable results: assets under management have reached almost USD 700 m and the Fund has disbursed USD 790 m since its inception. Most importantly, the projected CO2 emissions reductions from projects financed by GCPF have now reached 17 m tonnes, the equivalent of Mongolia’s emissions for a year.
Is there one achievement you are particularly proud of?
Over the past five years and as a result of many workshops organized by the team in numerous locations and regarding a whole series of topics, GCPF has created a worldwide community of climate finance partners. We strongly believe that enabling the exchange on green lending best practices between our partners is one of the most effective ways for them to grow their climate finance portfolio, and ultimately have a bigger impact on climate change.
What is the recipe behind this success?
Passion, trust and fun! To convince future partners to join the Fund and become a green expert, there is nothing better than the true passion of the team. We are all convinced of the importance of growing green portfolios for the future of our planet, and I believe this passion is passed on to our partners. Building trust with not only our partners but also with our different governance bodies and investors is key for the success of GCPF. We are working hard on that. We also believe that trust and transparency go hand in hand, which is why we make so much information available on our website. Last but not least, although climate change is a very serious and important topic, a bit of fun here and there can only make our world better!
