By Volker Ahlemeyer
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and European Union (EU) have announced new guarantee support of up to €1 billion(US$1.08billion) for green investments. The announcement took place at the “High level roundtable on a Euro-Mediterranean clean tech cooperation”, a side event at COP28.
The new funding will boost lending to projects across various economic sectors, such as energy and municipal infrastructure, industrial, building and logistics. The funding will be supported by guarantees from the EU’s European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+).
The financing of climate technologies will be backed by €168 million in EFSD+ guarantees. This funding will help to accelerate the uptake of innovative and under-deployed climate-change-mitigation technologies, particularly those facing high barriers in any of the economies where the EBRD operates outside the EU.
An additional €60 million in EFSD+ guarantees will be allocated to sustainable infrastructure projects. The guarantees will support green investments in the industrial, building and transport sectors, and include circular-economy and energy-efficiency measures in eastern Europe and the Caucasus, the southern and eastern Mediterranean region, and Türkiye.
EBRD First Vice President Jürgen Rigterink said: “I am delighted to announce this significant milestone, which will help us to achieve our ambitious goals in mobilising climate finance and supporting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Together with the EU, our work will not only boost vital green investments, but also help to build a more sustainable future for people across the EBRD regions.”
The European Commission’s Director-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Gert Jan Koopman, said: “The EBRD is one of our key partners in our efforts to increase investments in our Neighbourhood and Enlargement countries. The two guarantees that the EU and the EBRD intend to conclude will help reduce the perceived risk by the private sector to invest in green technologies in countries engaged in a challenging green transition. These agreements show our strong commitment to the goals of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change discussed at the COP28 gathering this week.”
