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EBRD backs $0.5bn extension in
Green Climate Fund partnership
ASIA THE European Bank for Reconstruction and The programme, worth $1.4bn in all, benefits
Development (EBRD) has approved additional from GCF support amounting to $378mn, out of
headroom for the next phase of its large-scale which $344mn is concessional co-funding and
partnership with the Green Climate Fund $34mn is grants for technical assistance. Other
(GCF). donors supporting the programme include
An extension of the cooperation by $497mn the GCF, the European Union, the Republic of
would support thousands of individual invest- Korea, Austria, Luxembourg, Japan and Turkey.
ments in technologies that cut emissions and As of end-2020, GCF GEFF products had
enhance resilience to climate change, it said. been launched in eight countries in partnership
The GCF-EBRD Green Energy Financing with 18 local financial institutions, and had sup-
Facilities (GEFF) programme, inaugurated in ported over 500 green investments, the EBRD
2018, spans three regions and directs new cli- said.
mate finance flows to Armenia, Egypt, Geor- The EBRD’s Green Energy Financing Facili-
gia, Jordan, Republic of Moldova, Mongolia, ties (GEFF) provide credit lines to open up new
Morocco, Serbia, Tajikistan and Tunisia. Sums financing paths and new markets of sustainable
lent to local partner financial institutions are development for people pursuing climate invest-
on-lent to private sub-borrowers for investments ments, and addressing the barriers women face,
in climate change mitigation and adaptation the lender said, noting that the GEFF is a corner-
projects. stone of the EBRD’s ambitious aim to become a
“The new extension will help maintain majority green investor by 2025.
momentum and continue scaling up gender-re- The GCF was set up by 194 countries, which
sponsive green financing,” the EBRD said, add- are parties to the United Nations Framework
ing: “It is estimated that the latest extension will Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in
avoid CO2 emissions of 800,000 tonnes per 2010 to deliver equal amounts of funding to mit-
year, which is equivalent to retiring 125 MW of igation and adaptation initiatives in developing
coal-fired electricity generation capacity. The countries.
extension enhances women and men’s equal The GCF-EBRD’s partnership for transfor-
opportunity to access green finance and tech- mation has seen the GCF support six EBRD
nologies with a view to reducing existing gender programmes with $830mn, catalysing more
gaps.” than $3.6bn in total project value, the EBRD said.
Of the additional framework headroom, The GCF is the largest climate fund in the world,
$373mn will come from the development bank’s supporting the efforts of developing countries
ordinary resources, with an equivalent of up to to respond to the challenge of climate change, it
$124mn of concessional financing provided by added.
the GCF.
P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 11 18•March•2021
