EBRD will provide guarantees to lenders such as local commercial banks, which will allow providing funding to projects along with EBRD loans
EBRD and EU offer funding boost to investments in renewable energy in EU Neighbourhood. (Credit: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development)
The EBRD and the European Union (EU) have announced a €50m ($55.4m) financial guarantees programme to boost renewable energy in the EU Neighbourhood.
The new programme is aimed at boosting investments in renewable energy in Ukraine and in the EU’s Southern Neighbourhood with a specific focus on Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia.
As per the terms of the new guarantee programme, EBRD will provide guarantees to lenders such as local commercial banks, allowing them to provide funding to projects along with EBRD loans.
The EBRD’s guarantee programme will receive funding through the EU External Investment Plan (EIP).
EIP is an EU initiative which was launched in 2017 to attract more investment, especially from businesses and private investors, into countries neighbouring the EU and in Africa.
The guarantee programme is expected to generate total investments of about $554.2m
EBRD said that the guarantee programme is estimated to help generate a total investment of approximately €500m ($554.2m) and is expected to provide 340MW of additional installed renewable energy capacity.
The capacity is equivalent to addition 970GWh per year of clean energy production from renewable resources while offsetting 530 kilo tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
The EU has allotted €4.5bn ($4,988m) in public funds via EIP to leverage €44bn in public and private investment for the development in countries adjacent to EU and in Africa.
Recently, EU has signed €216m ($239.4m) four guarantee agreements to help unlock €2bn ($2,216.9m) to invest in renewables, urban infrastructure and start-ups in Africa and the neighbourhood.
In September last year, EBRD and EU announced a new €11.5m (£10.2m) investment programme, to support regular water supply and provide access to fresh drinking water for over 40,000 people living in small municipalities in the Kyrgyz Republic.
To date, the EBRD claims to have financed over 1,600 green projects and reduced over 100 million tonnes of carbon emissions.