This paper outlines the goals of low carbon development (LCD) and why public sector interventions are needed to mobilise the private sector to become involved in it. The paper lays out a ‘20 questions toolkit’ for stakeholders involved in designing public and private sector interventions at the project and programme level. The questions cover interventions and how they relate to the local context in terms of current market conditions and policy frameworks, the degree to which private sector participation is required and the type of private sector actors that should be targeted.The paper argues that the private sector is often seen as having significant resources and capacity for investment, high levels of efficiency, managerial capability and operational power which can be harnessed to achieve LCD goals. However, private sector actors are often unable to achieve the returns necessary to attract them to enter into new high risk low carbon sectors or higher risk investment environments present in developing countries. Barriers to private sector participation include unstable political climate, weak enforceability of contracts and agreements, absence of intellectual property rights and capital controls, and limited availability of the networks necessary for many technologies. The paper includes the following recommendations:

use simple and manageable systems that encourage and facilitate the design of creative projects and programmes
ensure that local private sector actors manage and hold funds provided in cases where the long-term aims of LCD is self-sufficiency of low and middle income countries
capacity building of the local private sector should be part of the intervention to allow the development of an exit strategy for the public sector
all interventions should incorporate metrics established on the basis of stakeholder consultation to determine the level of acceptable failure within a programme of interventions
incorporate flexibility into the design of an intervention to reduce dependency on a particular set of technologies or approaches.