Locations
Climate and Sustainable Finance Hub
Development Challenge
The Climate and Sustainable Finance Hub (the “Hub”) is a national coordination mechanism established within the Economic and Fiscal Policy Department (EFPD) of the Ministry of Finance of the Lao PDR. Launched in 2025, the Hub serves as a platform to strengthen coordination, resource mobilization, and effective deployment of climate and sustainable finance in alignment with national development priorities, including the National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), and National Adaptation Plan (NAP). Guided by the “3Cs + E” Framework, the Hub is strategically positioned as a national enabler, bridging policy, finance, and implementation to accelerate the scale and effectiveness of climate and sustainable finance in Lao PDR.
Project Background
The Hub was established in response to persistent challenges in Lao PDR’s climate and development financing landscape, including fragmented policy implementation, limited coordination across institutions, and gaps in aligning financing with national priorities. Despite ambitious policy commitments evident from the NSEDP, NDC, and NAP, there is a need for a dedicated mechanism to connect planning, financing, and implementation efforts to achieve the intended targets.
The staffing and activities of the Hub are supported through the UN Joint Programme ‘United Nations Coordinated Technical Assistance to the Government of Lao PDR on Green and Climate Finance’. The UN Joint Programme was signed with the Government of Lao PDR in 2025 and includes financial support from the Embassy of Luxembourg and its Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Biodiversity (MECB). The Hub has further received complementary financial support from the Asian Development Bank for a period of two years.
Expected Results
The Hub is expected to deliver significant impact by strengthening the overall climate finance system, enhancing government coordination, and increasing investment in green growth initiatives. It aims to promote a more effective and strategic use of resources, ultimately supporting a transition away from fragmented, project-based approaches towards well-coordinated and integrated investment portfolios.
Core Functions
- Addressing information asymmetry on policy developments, project pipelines and implementation
- Institutional coordination
- Unlocking financing opportunities
- Brokering knowledge exchange, addressing evidence gaps and promoting capacity building
Key Services of the Hub
- The Hub will play a central role in reducing information fragmentation through periodic reviews of the green and climate finance landscape, including new policy developments, financing instruments tested and project financing raised. The Hub will issue a Quarterly Update to all stakeholders on various developments evident in Lao PDR’s climate and sustainable finance ecosystem and will produce a repository of key reports, knowledge products, policy documents, research papers and relevant data for all stakeholders.
- The Hub will enhance a whole-of-government coordination approach through convening an inter-ministerial advisory group and technical working group that will meet regularly to address policy and implementation gaps in a coordinated manner.
- The Hub will establish and operationalise a National Investment Platform and Project Preparation Facility to build a pipeline of bankable green investment projects by consolidating initiatives of various ministries and development partners and by identifying gaps, and supporting projects to reach investment readiness. It will standardize project preparation, aligned with national priorities (NSEDP, NDC 3.0, NAP etc.), and connect projects to public investments, concessional, and private finance, shifting from fragmented projects to programmatic, portfolio-level investment beyond vertical funds. It will prioritize the engagement of non-environmental ministries to co-design pipelines. Hosted at the Ministry of Finance, the Hub will further examine and steer favourable fiscal measures to raise domestic financing capacities in order to demonstrate public investment commitments to catalyze other sources of finance for green growth and climate resilience building priorities. The Hub will not raise project financing for itself, other than Technical Assistance support. The Hub will not have an implementation role for any projects that secure funding.
- To promote knowledge sharing and facilitate capacity building, the Hub will co-develop and co-publish research papers, co-organize capacity building initiatives and facilitate online webinars and knowledge exchange with other countries.
Contacts:
United Nations Development Programme
Lane Xang Avenue
P.O. Box 345 Vientiane, Lao PDR
Email: info.la@undp.org
Tel: +856 (0) 21 267 777
Fax: +856 (0) 21 267 799
