EBRD set a new milestone in renewable energy financing

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) broke a record in the Bank’s history in financing clean energy projects, financing well over 1GW of new renewable capacity in 2017.

These renewable energy projects will help reduce carbon emissions by 2 million tonnes per year.

EBRD has set a target of dedicating at least 40 percent of its total annual investments to green finance by 2020, to go in line with the Paris Agreement goals, and according to a statement from the bank it may reach and exceed this goal by the end of 2017.

Up to date, EBRD has invested more than €4 billion directly in renewable energy, supporting projects in over 20 countries and funding more than 6.5 GW of capacity.

Some of the most important projects that received financing from EBRD during 2017 are the proposed 1.8GW Benban Solar in Egypt, where the bank has been involved in all three phases that have been announced so far.

Under the $500 million Framework for Renewable Energy in Egypt programme, EBRD is currently financing 16 new solar power plants which will be the first private utility-scale renewable energy projects, after the bank collaborated with the Egyptian Government to create conditions for private sector investment in the renewable energy sector.

It has also financed green power projects in Mongolia, Greece, Jordan, Serbia and Turkey; countries heavily dependent on fossil fuels with electricity systems locked-in coal and lignite.  

On March 2017, EBRD launched the Greek Renewable Energy Framework Programme, an investment framework to finance Greek renewable energy projects and electricity grid modernisation and expansion to enable renewables integration with total investment €300 million.

Nandita Pashad, EBRD’s Managing Director for Energy and Natural Resources said: “Renewables is a sector where the EBRD is making a major contribution”.

“It plays to our strengths of galvanising private sector expertise in combination with support for reforms that incentivise investments in new green technology”.