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WASHINGTON, DC, US, December 7, 2005 (Refocus
Weekly)
The World Bank Group committed US$212 million to
new renewable energy projects this year, representing a 15-year
total commitment of $2.5 billion.
The WBG annual progress report says it also funded $87 million in
energy efficiency and another $449 million for large hydro (over 10
MW capacity) in the most recent fiscal year, for a combined total of
$748 million compared with $339 million in the previous year. Total
commitments to the three sectors since 1990 exceed $9 billion.
The lowest level of funding for new renewables was in 1991, when $2
million was supported, while the high was in 2000 at $444 million.
The highest level for energy efficiency was $380 million in 1996,
while hydro received $938 million in 1993.
“The results achieved in FY05 demonstrate how the potential of
renewable energy and energy efficiency can be tapped to offer clean
energy services to meet the Millennium Development Goals,” says
Jamal Saghir of WBG. “The results are indicative of the positive
role we are playing in creating a new investment framework for
climate change, clean energy, and sustainable development.”
The report shows the progress made in the year since WBG committed
to increase its support for new renewables and energy efficiency by
an average of 20% per year from 2005 to 2009. That commitment was
made in Bonn, Germany in June 2004, at the International Renewable
Energies Conference, and later endorsed by the World Bank Board of
Executive Directors.
The report includes the support provided by the six regional energy
units of the WBG, International Finance Corporation, Multilateral
Investment Guarantee Agency, Carbon Finance operations, Energy
Sector Management Assistance Programme, and the Asia Alternative &
Sustainable Energy Program. It notes that each dollar of WBG
financing leveraged $5 from private investors, governments and
others.
By region, Africa received $46 million last year for new renewables
projects, for a 15-year total of $338 million. East Asia & Pacific
received $129 million ($840m), Europe & Central Asia received $6
million ($92m), Latin America & Caribbean received $15 million
($430m), Middle East & North Africa received $1 million ($45m) and
South Asia received $16 million ($525 million over the period).
“A major emphasis in the coming years will be to assist our partner
countries in undertaking strategic planning work to integrate
renewable energy and energy efficiency into long-term development
strategies and to support project development,” explains Anil
Cabraal of the WBG. Commitments for renewables and energy efficiency
are 26% of total energy sector commitments of $2.8 billion made this
year.
Forty renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in 28
countries were supported, with the smallest being the Yemen Rural
Electrification & Renewable Energy Development Project, and the
highest being$137 million for the first phase of the Renewable
Energy Scale-up Program in support of China’s commitment to increase
its share of renewables from 7% of generation capacity to 15% by
2020.
The work plan for the coming year “will continue and build on the
work begun” to support the scale-up commitment for renewables and
efficiency, the report adds. The primary objective will be to
strengthen the infrastructure and provide the necessary support to
operations unit to achieve scale-up, with specific activities to
include increasing business development activities for renewables
through IFC’s newly-created business units and streamlined
approaches to scale up carbon finance funding for renewables
projects in Africa.
The WBG will also complete and distribute its ‘REToolKit’ and
prepare its ‘Business Handbook for Renewable Energy,’ and “explore
opportunities within existing and new lending portfolios to increase
the volume of investments” for renewables.
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