Some nine more countries have pledged to establish and leverage green banks to address climate change.

The countries made their pledge during the Green Banks for Country-Driven Climate Finance: Showcasing Country Ambition event which was held at the COP25 conference.

The development has increased the number of countries utilising green banks to 35 from just 12 a couple of years ago.

The countries include:

1. Mongolia – Which is building the Mongolian Green Finance Corporation.
2. India – The Indian Renewable Energy and Development Agency is providing an initial investment to launch a fund supporting India’s ambitious goal of installing 450GW of renewable energy by 2030.
3. Rwanda – Rwanda will set up a new Rwanda Catalytic Green Investment Bank to mobilise private investment in Rwanda and serve as a hub for other African nations.
4. Other countries include New Zealand, Portugal, Peru, Spain and the Latin America region.

The Green banks will finance climate-friendly technologies such as large-scale offshore wind, small-scale solar, low-carbon transport, building energy efficiency and LED street lighting.

Worldwide, countries need to invest an estimated $1.6 trillion to $3.8 trillion annually through 2050 in low-carbon development to meet the Paris goal to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, according to a statement.

“Climate change must be addressed with bold actions to deploy new technologies rapidly and at scale,” said Prof. Anthony Nyong, Director of Climate Change and Green Growth at the African Development Bank (AfDB). “To this end, AfDB, with support from the Climate Investment Funds, is working with the Coalition for Green Capital to explore how Green Banks and National Climate Change Funds can raise and deploy blended capital to finance local climate infrastructure while also driving an increase in private investment.”

“Mongolia has taken flight in accelerating its efforts towards the Paris Agreement, the latest contribution of which can be seen by the newly updated Nationally Determined Contributions reflecting more audacious ambitions,” said Naidalaa Badrakh, CEO of the Mongolian Bankers Association and one of the representatives featured at the event.

“To meet the financing needs of this robust climate and social agenda, the public and private sector actively collaborate to create a $50 million national green financing vehicle, the Mongolian Green Finance Corporation, with seed funding from the Green Climate Fund,” Badrakh added. “The project has already led to growth in green businesses and realisation for the need of green capacity building in all sectors and industries. [We] believe the next Green Climate Fund’s Board decision will see to reality a private-public partnership based future Green Bank that will unlock great green market potentials and achieve Mongolia’s green and sustainability goals.”

Source: Smart Energy International