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Now Is the Moment to Scale Blended Finance in the GCC
10 APRIL 2026
479
Sabrin Rahman, Partner, Human Planet, and Advisor to Majra
As the World Bank and IFC Spring Meetings approach, there is more discussion on how blended finance is moving from a niche concept to a practical tool for delivering the Gulf Cooperation Council countries’ energy transformation ambitions. Against the backdrop of current regional conflict, it is more critical than ever to have a diversified approach, whether it be on energy, infrastructure or capital. For the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and their neighbors, the opportunity is no longer just to attract climate capital, but to help design the structures that mobilize it at scale.
This matters because public finance alone will not deliver the transformation. Global climate and development needs now run into the trillions of dollars each year, while public budgets and concessional finance cover only a fraction of what is required. At the same time, governments across the region are managing competing domestic priorities, from housing, defense, and healthcare to education and job creation. Relying solely on sovereign balance sheets and state-owned entities to deliver every major project is neither efficient nor sustainable.
Blended finance offers a way forward. By using public, concessional, or philanthropic capital to absorb targeted risks, governments can unlock significantly larger pools of private investment from banks, institutional investors and impact funds. This ‘billions to trillions’ approach has moved from aspiration to necessity across global development and finance institutions, and it is increasingly relevant for the Gulf.
What global experience shows
Over the past decade, Africa and Asia have demonstrated how blended finance works in practice. In Africa, concessional capital and guarantees have enabled commercial banks to finance off-grid solar power generation and other essential infrastructure for first-time customers. In Asia, development banks have taken subordinated or guaranteed positions in large renewable and infrastructure projects, attracting institutional investors that would not otherwise have entered.
The lesson is consistent: when risk is structured intelligently, each public dollar can crowd in several private dollars. These same tools, including first-loss capital, guarantees, technical assistance and outcome-based payments, are directly applicable to GCC priorities such as renewable energy, green hydrogen, electricity grid modernization, climate-resilient cities, and sustainable tourism.
What this looks like for the GCC
There are several blended finance structures that are now available to be be deployed in the region, including:
As the World Bank and IFC Spring Meetings approach, there is more discussion on how blended finance is moving from a niche concept to a practical tool for delivering the Gulf Cooperation Council countries’ energy transformation ambitions. Against the backdrop of current regional conflict, it is more critical than ever to have a diversified approach, whether it be on energy, infrastructure or capital. For the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and their neighbors, the opportunity is no longer just to attract climate capital, but to help design the structures that mobilize it at scale.
This matters because public finance alone will not deliver the transformation. Global climate and development needs now run into the trillions of dollars each year, while public budgets and concessional finance cover only a fraction of what is required. At the same time, governments across the region are managing competing domestic priorities, from housing, defense, and healthcare to education and job creation. Relying solely on sovereign balance sheets and state-owned entities to deliver every major project is neither efficient nor sustainable.
Blended finance offers a way forward. By using public, concessional, or philanthropic capital to absorb targeted risks, governments can unlock significantly larger pools of private investment from banks, institutional investors and impact funds. This ‘billions to trillions’ approach has moved from aspiration to necessity across global development and finance institutions, and it is increasingly relevant for the Gulf.
What global experience shows
Over the past decade, Africa and Asia have demonstrated how blended finance works in practice. In Africa, concessional capital and guarantees have enabled commercial banks to finance off-grid solar power generation and other essential infrastructure for first-time customers. In Asia, development banks have taken subordinated or guaranteed positions in large renewable and infrastructure projects, attracting institutional investors that would not otherwise have entered.
The lesson is consistent: when risk is structured intelligently, each public dollar can crowd in several private dollars. These same tools, including first-loss capital, guarantees, technical assistance and outcome-based payments, are directly applicable to GCC priorities such as renewable energy, green hydrogen, electricity grid modernization, climate-resilient cities, and sustainable tourism.
What this looks like for the GCC
There are several blended finance structures that are now available to be be deployed in the region, including:
• Renewable energy funds with public or philanthropic first-loss capital supporting senior private investment
• Credit guarantee facilities that lower the cost of capital for sustainable infrastructure projects
• Results-based finance linked to verified climate or resilience outcomes
• Green industrial and logistics zone platforms that attract private capital into shared low-carbon infrastructure
• Nature-based solutions backed by blended finance such as concessional and impactoriented investors derisking loans for nature-based climatesmart agroforestry or ecofriendly tourism, allowing commercial investors to finance “nature as infrastructure,” longlived natural assets that deliver services such as water regulation, soil stability, and carbon storage.
Across all of these models, the principle is the same: public capital takes targeted, time-bound risk so that private capital can scale.
The opportunity is significant. While green and sustainability-linked finance has grown rapidly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the region still attracts a relatively small share of global green investment. With coordinated blended finance platforms, it is realistic to expect tens of billions of dollars in additional capital to be mobilized this decade. Even conservative leverage ratios could translate into USD 75-100 billion in total investment across the GCC when crowd-in effects are included.
Building the financial architecture
Mobilizing blended finance at scale requires more than capital. It requires specialist structuring capability, strong partnerships between public and private actors, and institutions that understand both development priorities and investor constraints.
• Credit guarantee facilities that lower the cost of capital for sustainable infrastructure projects
• Results-based finance linked to verified climate or resilience outcomes
• Green industrial and logistics zone platforms that attract private capital into shared low-carbon infrastructure
• Nature-based solutions backed by blended finance such as concessional and impactoriented investors derisking loans for nature-based climatesmart agroforestry or ecofriendly tourism, allowing commercial investors to finance “nature as infrastructure,” longlived natural assets that deliver services such as water regulation, soil stability, and carbon storage.
Across all of these models, the principle is the same: public capital takes targeted, time-bound risk so that private capital can scale.
The opportunity is significant. While green and sustainability-linked finance has grown rapidly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the region still attracts a relatively small share of global green investment. With coordinated blended finance platforms, it is realistic to expect tens of billions of dollars in additional capital to be mobilized this decade. Even conservative leverage ratios could translate into USD 75-100 billion in total investment across the GCC when crowd-in effects are included.
Building the financial architecture
Mobilizing blended finance at scale requires more than capital. It requires specialist structuring capability, strong partnerships between public and private actors, and institutions that understand both development priorities and investor constraints.
A growing ecosystem of organizations is helping shape this market. Multilateral development banks such as the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have played a central role in building blended finance structures, often by providing guarantees, concessional capital, or anchor investment that allows private capital to enter. The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), launched with philanthropic backing from partners, is another example of a platform designed to mobilize billions of dollars into clean energy access through blended finance.
Private sector actors are also playing a growing role. Firms such as BlackRock have supported blended investment platforms like the Climate Finance Partnership, designed to bring institutional capital into emerging market climate infrastructure. Meanwhile, advisory and implementation organizations such as Convergence Blended Finance and Climate Policy Initiative have helped develop the market by providing transaction design, research, and catalytic capital structures.
Alongside these global actors, specialized advisory firms are trusted by governments and institutions to translate policy ambition into investable financial architecture. At Human Planet, our focus is on helping governments, sovereign funds, development institutions, and corporates design the structures that allow private capital to flow into sustainable development and climate solutions.
In practice, this means supporting the creation of blended finance vehicles such as funds, facilities, and investment platforms that align public policy objectives with investor requirements. It also means bringing together the right partners across the capital stack, from development finance institutions and philanthropic capital to commercial banks and institutional investors. Finally, it involves building credible impact and measurement frameworks so that projects deliver both financial returns and measurable development outcomes.
When these elements come together, blended finance moves from a one-off transaction to a repeatable financial architecture that can scale across sectors and markets.
As global development finance leaders convene this spring, the GCC has a clear opportunity to move from participating in blended finance to actively shaping it. With the right structures, partnerships, and platforms, the region can unlock substantial private capital, accelerate economic diversification, and export a new model of climate finance collaboration from the Gulf to the world.
Private sector actors are also playing a growing role. Firms such as BlackRock have supported blended investment platforms like the Climate Finance Partnership, designed to bring institutional capital into emerging market climate infrastructure. Meanwhile, advisory and implementation organizations such as Convergence Blended Finance and Climate Policy Initiative have helped develop the market by providing transaction design, research, and catalytic capital structures.
Alongside these global actors, specialized advisory firms are trusted by governments and institutions to translate policy ambition into investable financial architecture. At Human Planet, our focus is on helping governments, sovereign funds, development institutions, and corporates design the structures that allow private capital to flow into sustainable development and climate solutions.
In practice, this means supporting the creation of blended finance vehicles such as funds, facilities, and investment platforms that align public policy objectives with investor requirements. It also means bringing together the right partners across the capital stack, from development finance institutions and philanthropic capital to commercial banks and institutional investors. Finally, it involves building credible impact and measurement frameworks so that projects deliver both financial returns and measurable development outcomes.
When these elements come together, blended finance moves from a one-off transaction to a repeatable financial architecture that can scale across sectors and markets.
As global development finance leaders convene this spring, the GCC has a clear opportunity to move from participating in blended finance to actively shaping it. With the right structures, partnerships, and platforms, the region can unlock substantial private capital, accelerate economic diversification, and export a new model of climate finance collaboration from the Gulf to the world.
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