Installing renewable energy and improving energy and water efficiency will be a key focus of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as it deploys to four Mediterranean countries.
Josué Tanaka, EBRD: renewables and energy efficiency high on the agenda
The London-based EBRD is expanding its activities to Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia and hopes to begin lending to projects in the third quarter of this year, said Josué Tanaka, the bank’s managing director for operations, energy efficiency and climate change.
The bank was established in 1991 to help former Soviet countries in eastern Europe and central Asia make the transition to market economies. Over the last six years, the EBRD has made sustainable energy a focus of its operations, lending €8.8 billion ($11.6 billion) to renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Last year, climate-related projects tookalmost one-third of the EBRD’s overall lending of €9 billion.
Tanaka led the bank’s initial research in the four countries, where he found that renewable energy and energy efficiency were “much higher on the agenda than [in] most of our existing countries,” he told Environmental Finance.
These four countries import a significant amount of their energy, he said, so they have an economic imperative to produce their own power from renewables as well as save energy.
But the EBRD will also look to help the new countries adapt to climate change, principally through improving water efficiency, Tanaka said. “The key adaptation issue we are going to be dealing with is water,” he said. “We want to adapt the operational product we have developed for energy efficiency to water.”
The bank has gained significant expertise in energy efficiency investing through its activities in the former Soviet states, and has built up a network of 56 local banks that act as financing intermediaries.
The EBRD anticipates lending €250 million-500 million to projects in the four new countries this year, rising to €500 million-1 billion in 2013 and €2 billion-2.5 billion in three or four years’ time, Tanaka said. About one-quarter of this lending could be for energy and water projects, he added.
“We have already been approached by many [people] on quite interesting projects,” for example off-grid renewable energy generation for industrial plants, Tanaka said. “Certain banks in the region have heard what we do with our intermediary bank product and are asking to join ‘the club’.”
However, the focus will remain on industrial facilities, rather than irrigation for agriculture, for example. The EBRD is a big financier of downstream agribusinesses, Tanaka noted, but does not get involved in primary agriculture or irrigation, which tends to be managed by the public sector.
Christopher Cundy
- EBRD invests a record €2.6bn in sustainable energy in 2011
- IEA warns of ‘unsustainable energy future’
- Clean-tech association for Africa is launched
- EBRD invests €40m in Turkish clean energy fund
- EBRD launches third environmental bond
-
New from EF!
GLOBAL CARBON is our new quarterly publication for the carbon markets. It’s FREE to all Environmental Finance and Carbon Finance subscribers, and you when you register to have it delivered electronically to your desktop or mobile device. More..
-
Missed the Scaling up REDD+ webinars?
No need to miss out thanks to our post-event files package. If you were unable to take part why not purchase the audio & slides? Each webinar available separately, or buy four for the price of three! More..
-
New book announcement!
The 2nd edition of Investment Opportunities for a Low-Carbon World has been extensively updated since the first edition to reflect the rapid rate of change in technology, investment incentives and regulations. More..
-
Request your free issue of Environmental Finance today
Request your free issue of Environmental Finance today.Send us your contact details and you could be reading the latest issue of Environmental Finance.More..
.
