Monica Palmeira

Climate Finance Strategist

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Monica Palmeira

Climate Finance Strategist

Monica Palmeira (she/her/hers) was raised in Eastern North Carolina as a first-generation American in a Portuguese family. Her professional background includes ethnographic research, affordable housing advocacy, climate policy, and community engagement. Prior to joining Greenlining, Monica most recently held positions at the California Public Utilities Commission leading environmental justice initiatives, as well as at the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research – Strategic Growth Council where she spearheaded various outreach and technical assistance programs to support communities in accessing climate-related funding programs. She received a B.A. in International Studies and Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Southern California. In her free time, Monica loves spending time with her young son, visiting family back in Portugal, and rediscovering her home state.

Policy Staff Transformative Communities

Alongside Just Solutions Collective, with co-signatories California Environmental Justice Alliance, the California Public Banking Alliance, Friends of the Earth US, GRID Alternatives, Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Bank East Bay, and Rise Economy (formerly California Reinvestment Coalition), The Greenlining Institute submitted comments in response to the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank’s Climate Financing Request for Information. Our comments highlighted the transformative opportunity to extend financing to low-income and disadvantaged communities as presented by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), and offers a number or recommendations for equitable implementation of a California “Green Bank.”

Recommendations include:

• Provide low-cost capital compared with market capital for similar investments.
• Prioritize the unmet need for smaller-dollar loans and lines of credit by creating processes and mechanisms to both facilitate and streamline the underwriting of community-scale projects and clean energy and climate-related MWDBEs (such as electricians and energy efficiency contractors).
• Offer a suite of predevelopment products designed to move community-scale projects to shovel- readiness.
• Seek opportunities to create products to facilitate easy accessibility for LIDAC households, businesses, and community-based organizations to leverage resources, grants, and incentives offered by the IRA and other sources.
• Consider the entire universe of potential financing needs within each of EPA’s priority project categories and ensure they are addressed via product offerings.
• Maximize opportunities for LIDACs to build wealth and develop community-led projects via low-cost, flexible, patient capital, including loans with terms of 10 or more years and/or structured as equity-equivalent products.
• Publicly disclose underwriting criteria for standardized products.
• Create a mechanism, such as a dedicated fund or syndication pool with partner lenders or impact investors, allowing for direct investment of low-cost equity into community-led projects or mission-driven small businesses.
• Continue to actively participate in CPUC and CEC processes considering tariffed on-bill solutions, and uplift critical consumer protection provisions to ensure safety for LIDAC customers.

The full comment letter can be found here.

Monica Palmeira

Climate Finance Strategist

Read Bio