Globally, buildings generate 19 percent of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions and consume 40 percent of electricity. The built environment is expected to double globally by 2050, mostly in emerging markets, raising the importance of green construction to secure lower emissions for decades.
The Market Accelerator for Green Construction Program (MAGC) is a blended concessional finance program that works to accelerate the construction of certified green buildings. The program aims to mobilize $2 billion in investments to help mitigate climate change and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that have been directly linked to the construction sector. Investing in green buildings has become a crucial element in responding to the climate crisis.
In 2018, IFC and the UK Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ, then operating as BEIS) forged a partnership to combat climate change in developing countries by crowding in public and private sector financing for certified green buildings. While IFC has a long-standing relationship with the government of the United Kingdom, MAGC is the first UK-IFC bilateral partnership in blended concessional finance for climate change mitigation.
Priority Areas
The U.K. government’s contribution of £105 million includes £80 million for blended finance investments into financial intermediaries in emerging markets. As of the end of 2023, MAGC had facilitated over $800 million in investments in green building projects for financial institutions (FI) s across seven countries.
The MAGC program also includes £36 million for advisory services to support business strategy, capacity building, market enabling and research to scale green construction finance. IFC staff support FIs in creating finance products for green construction through technical assistance for developers, knowledge sharing workshops, and capacity building to evaluate regional green construction opportunities.
In addition, the MAGC program supports market-level technical efforts to promote the adoption of green construction and certification practices. The funds from the U.K. Government are used to catalyze construction markets by incentivizing the development of green buildings through certification with IFC’s Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) and other leading certifications. The EDGE certification has grown exponentially across sectors and geographies, with total certified real estate assets reaching over $80 billion in value as of April 2024.
As IFC continues to align our financing operations with the goals of the Paris Agreement, investments in green construction are strategic to reducing any country's CO2 emissions through lower energy and resource consumption.
