Bloomberg Philanthropies commits USD 242m for renewables instead of coal in 10 countries

Bloomberg Philanthropies last week announced a USD-242-million (EUR 229m) commitment to speed up the clean energy transition in 10 developing countries in Africa and elsewhere, which are expected to see rapid growth in power demand and which have high renewables potential.

The effort will encompass Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam. It was announced at the Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) forum in Rwanda.

“This support will help ten countries with enormous clean energy potential seize the opportunity and avoid building new coal plants,” said Bloomberg Philanthropies founder Michael Bloomberg, who is UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions.

The initiative will focus on areas such as data and research; support for public awareness; policy and diplomacy; and help for the development of a clean energy project pipeline through technical assistance and trainings as well as design blended finance vehicles to accelerate pilot projects in priority countries.

The 10 countries are seen as key to curbing global warming as, based on Climatescope data, they have almost 100 GW of coal power plant capacity and more than 75 GW of coal capacity under construction or planned.

The philanthropic organisation will work with partners among whom SEForAll and ClimateWorks Foundation.

At the SEForAll forum, a total of about USD 347 million in commitments were made to support energy access and transition.

These include also up to GBP 40 million (USD 50m/EUR 47m) from Innovate UK’s Energy Catalyst for innovation leading to clean energy access in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Indo-Pacific regions. The funding, part of the Energy Catalyst Round 9 and 10 funding cycles, will support the creation and demonstration of new technologies and business models that deliver “a just and inclusive clean energy transition,” the UK body said.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.945)

(GBP 1 = USD 1.247/EUR 1.179)

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