Norway Launches New Renewable Energy Investment Fund For Developing Countries

South Africa is expected to get a fresh spell of investments in the renewable energy segment that will help the country to increase the green energy in its energy basket and decrease carbon emission. This is because Norway will make funds available from its climate investment fund to the developing countries for the development of renewable energy projects necessary for climate change mitigation. As per reports, the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (NORFUND) will manage the new funding facility. The fund will be operational for five years.

The objective of Norway behind setting up of the new climate investment fund is to diminish or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions through renewable energy expansion in developing countries that presently have high GHG emissions from burning coal and other fossil fuels. Experts hold that Africa should benefit from the Norway funds; especially South Africa. More than 195 million euros will be added to the new financing system every year.

Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, Norwegian Development Minister, said, “The Climate Investment Fund will play a central role in realising the government’s ambition to double our annual global climate finance. I am convinced that Norfund will manage the fund in such a way that every NOK allocated will have a maximum effect on the climate.”

Analysts believe that South Africa should remain in the heart of the renewable energy programmes funded by NORFUND. This is because this will be in accordance to the Oslo guidelines. Today, South Africa is seen as the biggest polluter in entire Africa as more than 80 per cent of its electricity comes from coal based power plants. Recently, NORFUND and British International Investment (BII) provided about $39 million funds to a South African renewable energy investment company.

Moreover, Tellef Thorleifsson, Managing Director, NORFUND, informed that the new fund will also help the renewable energy investment of EUR 787 million in India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. “We also remain open to future investments in other countries where we can have a significant climate effect and work with strong partners,” held Thorleifsson.

Placing a special responsibility on the shoulders of the developed world, recently, the United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres had called for a faster transition to renewable energy in order to combat the rising threats of climate change.