GCF to support renewables on Pacific Islands

The board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) last week approved a USD-17-million grant for renewables on the Cook Islands, as part of a USD-315-million (EUR 303m) funding package for various projects and programmes.

GCF will support the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) proposed Pacific Islands Renewable Energy Investment Programme, which concerns Cook Islands, Tonga, Republic of Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru and Samoa.

The fund will extend an initial USD-12-million grant for Cook Islands to install energy storage systems and back private sector investment in renewable energy. This is expected to increase renewables generation on the main island of Rarotonga to over 50% of overall supply from the current 15%, ADB said in a statement.

In addition, GCF will provide USD 5 million for the development of energy plans, to build skills, implement tariff and regulatory reforms, as well as to encourage greater private sector participation in the energy sector.

ADB noted that its proposed programme would help conduct feasibility studies for solar, wind, hydropower, energy storage and mini-grid projects worth more than USD 400 million in the other six countries. These will be proposed to the GCF.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.962)

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