Climate Finance for Eco-Friendly Projects
Climate finance committed by major multilateral development banks (MDBs) rose in 2021 with over USD. $. 19 billion committed to climate change adaptation finance, according to the Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance, published on Friday 14th October 2022.
The report finds that total financing commitment by MDBs to low-income and middle-income economies in 2021 of USD. $. 50.666 billion, surpassed the annual expectations of USD. $. 50 billion set in 2019 at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in New York.
The 2021 multilateral development bank report combines data from the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank Group, the Islamic Development Bank and the World Bank Group.
In Kenya, local Financial Institutions like KCB Group has disbursed KES 336 billion worth of loans in the last two years for projects that are eco-friendly as the Financial Institutions deepens its push for sustainable finance. The bank in its Progressive Action for Sustainable Development report reduced resource consumption by 17 percent.
During the period, KCB grew its green portfolio from 4% of the loan book in 2020 to 8.4% last year, mainly in real estate, renewable energy, transport, manufacturing, and agriculture sectors. KCB further inked a deal with IFC to help catalyze the growth of climate finance in Kenya. Under the deal, IFC will extend a KES. 18 billion (USD. $. 150 million) loan to KCB to fund the growth of the lender’s climate finance portfolio especially in the development of energy efficiency projects, renewable energy, climate-smart projects, and green buildings.
