World Bank to promote renewable energy
BONN, Germany, 2004-06-09 (Refocus Weekly)
The World Bank will commit to annual growth of 20% in renewable energy over the next five years.
The target growth rate will “ensure an institutional focus on the fostering
of the transition toward cleaner energy sources,” says Peter Woicke of the
World Bank Group and its private sector lending arm, the International Finance
Corporation. The growth rate will require approval of the bank's board of
directors and will cover both renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.
“Our strategy - through programs and policies - will aim to ensure that
renewable energy and energy efficiency are seen as economically viable and
essential ingredients in the energy choices of our member nations, not marginal
considerations,” and the increased lending will double the Bank’s current
level of US$200 million per year by 2010.
The strategy will involve a transition from donor-driven subsidy schemes to
market-based solutions; development of policies and regulations to promote
renewables; openness toward the adoption of new technologies and new business
models; elimination of market distortions that keep nations tied to financially
unsustainable or environmentally damaging energy regimes; and growth of carbon
markets to mitigate climate change and speed the transformation to clean energy.
The Bank is prepared to accelerate and enlarge its role by encouraging nations,
institutions, civil society and businesses to develop an action agenda on
development of renewables and energy efficiency. It will report on its
operations in renewables with sector-specific information and compare the
results to the energy investments of other institutions, and will increase staff
capacity, resources, and performance incentives for renewables so it can “more
effectively help our country and sector teams succeed in renewable energy and
energy efficiency projects, as well as more rapidly transfer best practice
across sectors and regions,” he adds.
Since 1990, the World Bank Group has been the largest lender for renewables in
developing nations, investing $6 billion and leveraging $10 billion from other
sources.
“We are convinced more than ever that the transition to a cleaner energy
future will be won project by project, village by village, and nation by
nation,” says Woicke. “We believe it will require a marketplace of
partnerships - public and private, national and local, corporations and civil
society - that is organized around a few key principles.” The 1.6 billion
people who lack access to electricity “deserve more than conventional wisdom
and more than conventional energy solutions, the solutions that will worsen our
global, national and local challenges,” he says. “They deserve the best
energy solutions, the cleaner energy solutions.”
Click
here for more info...
Visit http://www.sparksdata.co.uk/refocus/ for your international energy focus!!
|