The head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced the launching of a Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative (SEFI), which was aimed at engaging the finance sector to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer told bankers, financiers and members of the financial sector in Tokyo for the UNEP Finance Initiative Global Roundtable that two of world's most pressing issues - energy security and climate change - will not be solved "by the mindset that created them. Instead of climate change we need to create the climate for change," he said.
According to a UNEP statement from Tokyo, Toepfer told the group that "although sustainable energy technologies such as solar cells and wind turbines have advanced rapidly, the transaction costs and market uncertainty of many renewable energy projects has led most financiers to adopt a 'wait-and-see' attitude, which is compounded by an overall lack of information, experience and the tools needed to quantify, mitigate and hedge project and financial product risks."
