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| NEWS |
| 07-12-2005 |
ALL NEWS |
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World Bank commits US$2.5 billion to renewables over 15 years |
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WASHINGTON, DC, US: The World Bank Group committed US$212 million to new renewable energy projects this year, representing a 15-year total commitment of $2.5 billion. |
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The WBG annual progress report says it also funded $87 million in energy efficiency and another $449 million for large hydro (over 10 MW capacity) in the most recent fiscal year, for a combined total of $748 million compared with $339 million in the previous year. Total commitments to the three sectors since 1990 exceed $9 billion. The lowest level of funding for new renewables was in 1991, when $2 million was supported, while the high was in 2000 at $444 million. The highest level for energy efficiency was $380 million in 1996, while hydro received $938 million in 1993. “The results achieved in FY05 demonstrate how the potential of renewable energy and energy efficiency can be tapped to offer clean energy services to meet the Millennium Development Goals,” says Jamal Saghir of WBG. “The results are indicative of the positive role we are playing in creating a new investment framework for climate change, clean energy, and sustainable development.” The report shows the progress made in the year since WBG committed to increase its support for new renewables and energy efficiency by an average of 20% per year from 2005 to 2009. That commitment was made in Bonn, Germany in June 2004, at the International Renewable Energies Conference, and later endorsed by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors. The report includes the support provided by the six regional energy units of the WBG, International Finance Corporation, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, Carbon Finance operations, Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme, and the Asia Alternative & Sustainable Energy Program. It notes that each dollar of WBG financing leveraged $5 from private investors, governments and others. By region, Africa received $46 million last year for new renewables projects, for a 15-year total of $338 million. East Asia & Pacific received $129 million ($840m), Europe & Central Asia received $6 million ($92m), Latin America & Caribbean received $15 million ($430m), Middle East & North Africa received $1 million ($45m) and South Asia received $16 million ($525 million over the period). “A major emphasis in the coming years will be to assist our partner countries in undertaking strategic planning work to integrate renewable energy and energy efficiency into long-term development strategies and to support project development,” explains Anil Cabraal of the WBG. Commitments for renewables and energy efficiency are 26% of total energy sector commitments of $2.8 billion made this year. Forty renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in 28 countries were supported, with the smallest being the Yemen Rural Electrification & Renewable Energy Development Project, and the highest being$137 million for the first phase of the Renewable Energy Scale-up Program in support of China’s commitment to increase its share of renewables from 7% of generation capacity to 15% by 2020. The work plan for the coming year “will continue and build on the work begun” to support the scale-up commitment for renewables and efficiency, the report adds. The primary objective will be to strengthen the infrastructure and provide the necessary support to operations unit to achieve scale-up, with specific activities to include increasing business development activities for renewables through IFC’s newly-created business units and streamlined approaches to scale up carbon finance funding for renewables projects in Africa. The WBG will also complete and distribute its ‘REToolKit’ and prepare its ‘Business Handbook for Renewable Energy,’ and “explore opportunities within existing and new lending portfolios to increase the volume of investments” for renewables.
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