Page 10 - AfrElec Week 22 2021

AfrElec INVESTMENT AfrElec

EBRD, Green Climate Fund scale up green

financing with $1bn corporate programme

AFRICA THE European Bank for Reconstruction and as part of their corporate climate governance
Development (EBRD) and the Green Climate undertakings.
Fund (GCF) have announced that they are scal- Overall, the programme is expected to reduce
ing up their green financing and strengthening emissions by 17.2mn tCO2 over a 20-year asset
their cooperation by launching a $ 1bn “High lifetime, which is equivalent to avoiding one
impact programme for the corporate sector”. year’s worth of energy-related CO2 emissions by
The programme has been designed to facil- a country like Croatia.
itate a transformational shift within the ener- The EBRD’s Renaud-Basso said: “We are very
gy-intensive industries, agribusinesses and happy to strengthen the cooperation with our
mining sectors of Armenia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, longstanding partner, the GCF, to achieve sus-
Morocco, Serbia, Tunisia and Uzbekistan. It will tainable development across our regions. It is a
promote the uptake of low-carbon technologies great example of how organisations can work
in the industrial sector and it is the GCF’s first together to address environmental challenges.
at-scale engagement in the sector. Companies face a range of challenges related
EBRD president Odile Renaud-Basso and to identifying, prioritising and implementing
GCF executive director Yannick Glemarec low-carbon projects, and support from the
signed the agreement for the programme on EBRD and the GCF will be crucial.”
June 2. GCF executive director Yannick Glemarec
The programme combines $252.5mn of con- said: “This USD 1 billion initiative demonstrates
cessional finance from the GCF with $757.5mn how GCF’s partnership with EBRD is driving
from the EBRD and other co-financiers, and an innovation and investment in climate action at
additional $5.53mn from the GCF and $1.36mn scale in developing countries. This programme
from the EBRD for technical assistance and pol- covers seven countries and serves as a model in
icy dialogue. paring back emissions in hard-to-abate indus-
Critical financial barriers to the uptake of cli- tries. It will facilitate technology transfer and
mate technologies across the industrial, agribusi- place climate change at the centre of corporate
ness and mining sectors contribute to the higher strategy.”
costs that early adopters of technologies face due Recognising the scale of investment neces-
to a lack of access to suitable financial products sary to limit global temperature rise to below 2
with adequate pricing, the EBRD said. degrees Celsius, the GCF was created to support
The programme will support the corporates developing countries in mitigating and adapting
in formulating a low-carbon pathway, along with to the challenges posed by climate change.
a concrete action plan of realistic investment The EBRD and the GCF have been working
and a strategic review of their business model together since 2017.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 22 03•June•2021