EBRD to showcase its FINTECC transfer programme at Bonn conference
Ever since the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, climate finance has been very high up on the agenda of the international community.
Paris was a crucial breakthrough – delivering the near-universal consensus behind the urgent need to tackle climate change and to slow the pace of global warming.
But it was only the beginning of the efforts to put in place the financing and the technology that is needed to support the Paris vision.
Multilateral development banks (MDBs) such as the EBRD have all agreed to scale up their financing for green investments, putting in their own funds but also playing a key role in galvanising the resources – and the expertise – of the private sector.
The EBRD is also making an important contribution to the process of climate technology transfer, a topic that will be in focus at this year’s global climate talks, the COP23 conference, that will be taking place in Bonn, Germany from 6 to 17 November.
The MDBs are supporting technology transfer with the development of Regional Technology Transfer Centres using initial funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) under its Long-Term Program on Technology Transfer.
These centres facilitate the transfer of know-how, experience and equipment all aimed at mitigating and adapting to climate change.
For the EBRD it is crucially important to promote such transfers to many of the 38 emerging economies where it works to promote the development of sustainable market economies. Many of the EBRD’s countries of operations are still struggling with a legacy of energy waste and pollution.
The EBRD’s Regional Technology Transfer Centre is called the Finance and Technology Transfer Centre for Climate Change or FINTECC.
It has a vital role in supporting climate technology transfer, across different regions and sectors by helping businesses implement climate technologies. The programme offers technical assistance provided by the EBRD and international consultants, as well as incentive grants for companies to introduce eligible technologies. Grants are available to the companies as a complement to EBRD financing.
Since its beginning in 2014 and until now, FINTECC has helped more than 25 companies up their game by improving energy efficiency and implementing new technologies in their production and operating processes.
In Jordan, an agricultural company is being supported with an EBRD loan of US$ 21 million for its expansion programme. The project involves expansion of feed mill and silos, improvement to the retail segment, and implementation of new energy efficient measures that will reduce the company’s fuel consumption for farmhouse heating, by at least 20 per cent.
In Morocco, a leading confectionery producer and exporter is using an EBRD loan of €4.6 million to finance the construction and operation of a new facility in Casablanca powered by a 1.4 MW solar plant on its rooftop. The project will implement additional energy efficiency measures, such as an ice-based energy storage system, energy recovery from a furnace chimney and high-grade thermal insulation. The project is expected to result in annual fuel savings of 600 tonnes of oil equivalent and emission reductions of 2,200 tonnes of CO2 per year.
The EBRD will present its successful FINTECC programme at this year’s COP with a dedicated event.
The main purpose of this event is to showcase the FINTECC’s business model and the reasoning behind its achievements, to present trends in the region and lessons learned by the Bank while implementing the programme.
Alongside FINTECC, the event will also cover another EBRD programme-The GCF-EBRD Renewable Energy Financing Framework- with a focus on two country examples: Egypt and Kazakhstan.
