OREANDA-NEWS. September 26, 2014. Addressing the challenges of climate change requires cooperation, collaboration, and commitment. The EBRD has responded to calls to finance clean energy projects through its own investments and by participating in the implementation of multi-donor funds such as the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

These funds seek to scale up climate finance through the provision of concessional funding, combined with enhanced knowledge sharing, and advisory support, leading to increased commercial financing becoming available for sustainable energy investments.

“This partnership has been very productive, allowing EBRD to deploy its sustainable financing expertise in new areas while clearly demonstrating the catalytic role of climate funds, particularly in the private”, says Josue Tanaka, Managing Director of Energy Efficiency and Climate Change at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.  Combining its commercial project financing with donor support for grant co-financing, concessional funds, and technical cooperation (TC), the EBRD’s business model has become an even more effective tool, ensuring an effective implementation of projects.

Donor co-financing via the CIF and the GEF has enabled the Bank to implement projects at a faster rate and reach into new sectors, both through direct lending and by working with partner financial institutions.   It has also helped EBRD to move beyond its core energy efficiency and renewable energy activities, developing innovative products in the area of climate change adaptation and climate technology transfer.

As at June 2014, the CIFs had programmed USD483 million for the EBRD region, largely for concessional finance that provides more attractive pricing and longer tenors to stimulate market development.  Projects will support investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, climate adaptation, as well as policy dialogue, technical assistance, and gender assessments in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Ukraine. Already USD 130 million of climate mitigation and USD 21 million climate adaptation funds have been signed with clients. This has enabled the EBRD to launch innovative approaches to building commercially viable projects – from large-scale hydropower refurbishment to small-scale finance for businesses, and refurbishing district heating systems in Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

The GEF in turn has contributed over USD80 million to EBRD to support Technical cooperation (TC) assignments and concessional co-finance for climate mitigation and adaptation activities.  These include policy dialogue and regulatory reform, investments in technology transfer, and support for project preparation and implementation.  A clear focus is put on activities such as capacity-building among local stakeholders, carrying out feasibility and market studies, and environmental audits which are crucial for developing nascent sustainable energy markets.  Countries of activity are Kazakhstan, Russia, Tunisia, and Ukraine and countries in Central Asia, particularly the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan. GEF support enables EBRD to comprehensively addresschallenges such as increasing energy efficiency in public buildings, investing in renewables, reducing transboundary pollution, and making water and port infrastructure more resilient to climate change.

Further detail on these key partnerships in the fight against climate change can be found in the newly published EBRD Climate Finance Global Partnerships – Accelerating the response to Climate Change.

From 2006 until August 2014, the EBRD has invested over USD19.5 billion in 833 energy efficiency, renewable energy, and adaptation to climate change projects in 34 countries.  These projects, once all are fully implemented, are expected to lead to annual CO2 emissions reductions of over 67 million tonnes.