COP15: International banks will support
projects in renewable energy
09 December 2009
Leading Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) have committed to
“further support” investment in projects and programmes in renewable
energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transportation systems at
COP15.
The heads of the world’s largest international financial institutions
have called for a comprehensive agreement to combat climate change at
this month’s COP15 Copenhagen conference, and have agreed to further
coordinate their own efforts to achieve that meeting’s goals.
They have released a joint statement in which they pledge to use their
own mandates, expertise and resources to help confront the challenges of
climate change and to make the best possible use of available financing.
The African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for
Reconstruction & Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American
Development Bank, World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund also
commit their organisations to the use of technical assistance and funds
to further support their environmental goals. They also recognise the
primacy of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
in setting the targets for dealing with global environmental challenges.
“We, the heads of the MDBs and the IMF, appeal to the Parties to the
UNFCCC to agree in Copenhagen the foundations for an ambitious,
comprehensive, and equitable global climate change regime that enables
all countries to achieve sustainable development along climate-resilient
and low GHG emission-intensive paths,” the statement explains. “Climate
change is a major threat to sustainable development in all regions of
the world.”
“It is critical that developed countries continue to take the lead in
the mitigation of climate change by adopting adequate quantitative
emissions reduction targets beyond 2012, and support and enable
nationally appropriate mitigation actions by developing countries with
technology, financing, and capacity-building,” it continues.
“The collective development experience of the MDBs suggests that many
opportunities exist in developing countries, in particular in
middle-income countries, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while
advancing sustainable development, creating opportunities for further
growth, and reducing the impact of, and vulnerability to, climate
change.”
The MDBs will coordinate their financing of climate actions within a
common framework that will provide technical assistance and financing
though loans, grants, equity, carbon finance, and guarantees.
For their existing projects and programmes in renewable energy, energy
efficiency and sustainable transportation systems, they will “further
support increasing public and private sector investment to scale-up such
projects and programmes using the full array of climate finance
instruments and other financing products.”
“Developing countries cannot be denied the chance to share in the
planet's wealth; they can, however, choose to approach economic
development differently by leapfrogging directly to more
energy-efficient and sustainable solutions,” says Haruhiko Kuroda of the
Asian Development Bank.
“Since infrastructure investments can establish a country's pattern of
resource use for decades to come, the time to act is now - before this
infrastructure is set in stone.”
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