Bank of America Partners with Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves to Raise $100 Million for Clean Cooking Solutions

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 Corporate & 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
This initiative, announced by Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan in September, is designed to raise at least $10 billion of new investment for high-impact clean energy projects. It will focus on developing or advancing innovative financing structures that reduce investment risk, thereby attracting a broader range of institutional investors. As part of the initiative, Bank of America will commit $1 billion in capital to investment structures that employ a range of de-risking tools, developed in conjunction with development finance institutions (DFIs), insurance providers, foundations and institutional investors. The goal of the initiative is to make clean energy investments more financeable, particularly in emerging markets where project impact is often amplified – addressing other large-scale issues like health, education and job creation.

Read more about Bank of America’s commitment to the environment.

Bank of America
Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small businesses, middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 48 million consumer and small business relationships with approximately 4,900 retail banking offices and approximately 15,700 ATMs and award-winning online banking with 31 million active users and more than 16 million mobile users. Bank of America is among the world's leading wealth management companies and is a global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business owners through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations in more than 40 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

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