EBRD and Green Climate Fund extend cooperation by $500m
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has approved additional headroom for the next phase of its large-scale partnership with the Green Climate Fund. The extension increases the framework headroom by up to $497 million. Of this, $373 million will come from the bank’s ordinary resources, with an equivalent of up to $124 million of concessional financing provided by the GCF.
The GCF-EBRD Green Energy Financing Facilities programme, inaugurated in 2018, spans three regions and directs new climate finance flows to Armenia, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Republic of Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Serbia, Tajikistan and Tunisia. Sums lent to local partner financial institutions are on-lent to private sub-borrowers for investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation projects.
The new extension will help continue scaling up gender-responsive green financing. It is estimated that the latest extension will avoid CO2 emissions of 800,000 tonnes per year, which is equivalent to retiring 125MW of coal-fired electricity generation capacity. The extension enhances women and men’s equal opportunity to access green finance and technologies with a view to reducing existing gender gaps.
The $1.4 billion programme benefits from GCF support amounting to $378 million, out of which $344 million is concessional co-funding and $34 million is grants for technical assistance. Other donors supporting the programme include the GCF, the European Union, the Republic of Korea, Austria, Luxembourg, Japan and Turkey.