Among the many pro-climate funding mechanisms in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the creation of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which grants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) $20 billion to establish a national green bank, and an additional $7 billion specifically for state, local, and tribal governments’ own clean power investments. Green banks are nonprofit institutions designed to provide and leverage capital to accelerate the transition to clean energy and mitigate climate change, and there are currently 23 sub-federal green banks across 17 U.S. states and territories.

The IRA’s allowances for green banking will facilitate direct and indirect investments into emissions reductions projects, especially in underserved communities, and states will play a huge role in allocating funds. In states with or without existing green banks, climate policy actors must understand how the IRA affects state-level clean power financing institutions.

To explore the IRA’s impacts on sub-federal green banks, including both state-funded and independent nonprofit institutions, we were joined by Henry Litman, Senior Director at Coalition for Green Capital, Bryan Garcia, President and CEO of the Connecticut Green Bank, and Duanne Andrade, Chief Strategic and Financial Officer of the Solar and Energy Loan Fund in Florida.