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Solar Energy Research
Department of Physics
Silpakorn University
Tel: +66 81 933 9999
Fax:+66 2 934 6993
mail@thaisolarpower.com
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2008.04.02 World Bank offers $5bn loan Low-interest fund for developing
countries
The World Bank has offered loans totalling US$5 billion for developing countries
to invest in projects to combat and adapt to climate change. The bank announced
its new Climate Investment Fund on the second day of the Bangkok Climate Talks
yesterday.
About 1,200 delegates from 163 countries have gathered to begin engineering a
new international pact on climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
Warren Evans, director of the World Bank's environment department, said the
initiative was part of a three-year scheme aimed at providing low-interest loans
for clean technology, climate change adaptation and sustainable forestry
management projects in developing countries, which are the most vulnerable to
climate-change effects. The United States, England and Japan had already
pledged to allocate the money to the bank's new climate change fund, he said.
''We have targeted to get over five billion US dollars,'' Mr Evans said. The UN
and NGOs would help design a mechanism to manage the fund. The bank expects to
conclude discussions on arrangements, including securing financial pledges from
donors, at the meeting of G8 environmental ministers in Tokyo next month. The
loan scheme is likely to get approval from the World Bank's executive board in
June, he said. Climate change activists, however, were sceptical, saying the
scheme could overlap with the climate change adaptation fund set up under the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC's
fund also aims to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation activities in
developing countries. The money come from a levy collected from the Kyoto
Protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM) projects, which is expected to
reach 500 million dollars in 2012. However, there is looming concern that the
current level of funding will be insufficient to address the future financial
burden needed for climate change adaptation and mitigation worldwide. Antonio
Hill, Oxfam's senior policy adviser, said the World Bank's scheme could paralyse
the Bali Action Plan on the UNFCCC adaptation fund. The funds should be made
available as grants, not as loans, because developing countries had suffered
enough from the impacts of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions by
the rich countries. ''[The scheme] is like you drive a car into someone's house
and cause damage, but then you offer a loan to the houseowner to make repairs,''
he said. The World Bank's environmental chief, however, insisted its climate
change fund will not clash with the UNFCCC's adaptation fund. ''If we find any
overlapping, we will avoid it. But we don't think it overlaps,'' said Mr Evans.
Member countries had a problem in seeking financial support from the UN
adaptation fund as the process was time-consuming, but the bank's fund will be
much easier to access. Mr Evans played down concerns the fund would be dominated
by donor countries. Developing countries and NGOs will be invited to take part
in the formulation and management of the fund, he said.
2008.03.31 Tunisia: Solar Thermal CDM project
Tunisia will have a combined capacity for solar water heating of more than 1.5
million m2 by the year 2010 and 2.5 million m2 in 2020. Yet, solar water heating
is currently not cost competative with LPG, natural gas or even electric water
heating in Tunisia, so strong policy measures will be necessary to develop the
market for solar water heaters. In response to this problem, the Tunisian
government, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the
Mediterranean Renewable Energy Partnership (MEDRP) initiated a solar water
heating program called PROSOL as part of a larger sustainable development
program that aims to install about 300,000 m2 of solar water heating capacity by
2009. PROSOL is also complemented by a CDM Project called "Large-scale solar
water heater market in Tunisia", executed by the National Agency for Rational
Use of Energy. The CDM project will enable the government to install an
additional 55,000 m2/year of solar water heaters, which will bring the grand
total to 500,000 m2 of installed capacity by 2011. This represents 670,000
tonnes of avoided CO2 emissions from 2009 to 2018. Revenues from selling
emission credits from the CDM project will go to an energy efficiency fund that
will support more solar water heating capacity and certify solar heating
products. More about PROSOL is available through
MEDREC and
UNEP.
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