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Bank of America Partners with Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves to Raise $100 Million for Clean Cooking SolutionsNEW YORK --(Business Wire)-- Bank of America today announced a partnership with the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) to raise $100 million to help provide clean cooking solutions to millions of households in the developing world. Advancing clean cooking solutions - which greatly reduce emissions that are harmful to people's health and the broader environment - is a component of the bank's recently launched Catalytic Finance Initiative. Bank of America announced the new initiative at the United Nations Climate Summit in September, committing to catalyze at least $10 billion of capital toward investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy access. "We understand there is a critical need for clean cooking solutions for families and communities throughout the developing world," said Anne Finucane, Bank of America global chief strategy and marketing officer. "This initiative will improve health, particularly for women and children; protect the environment by reducing carbon emissions; and spur economic growth. We do our best work when we combine our scale and resources with partners' expertise to help address the world's toughest challenges." Bank of America and Deutsche Bank will partner with GACC, other development finance institutions and private investors to create a $100 million fund to support social enterprises that advance and catalyze clean cookstove solutions. Bank of America will announce its commitment at the first Cookstoves Future Summit, hosted by GACC. Purna Saggurti, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Crporate & Investment Banking chairman, will represent the bank at the summit, which will bring together leaders from around the world to discuss the adoption of and investment in clean cooking solutions. "This broad-based public-private partnership will help improve the health and well-being of millions of people around the world," said Saggurti. "Our commitment to working with GACC on a facility to advance clean cookstoves is a great example of how we are using financial innovation to increase investment in a range of clean energy technologies." Bank of America has experience in financing clean cooking solutions in developing countries. The bank financed CleanStar Mozambique in 2011, an innovative sustainable bioethanol fuel and cookstove venture that is displacing charcoal. CleanStar has already sold 35,000 clean stoves in Maputo, Mozambique. The bank arranged financing using compliance market carbon credits that helped to crowd-in equity and debt from investors. Previously, the bank partnered with The Nature Conservancy to promote energy efficient cookstoves to reduce deforestation in Yunnan Province, China.
The Catalytic Finance Initiative Read more about Bank of America's commitment to the environment.
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