The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) partners with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), mobilising up to $1billion for the financing of green energy transition and renewable energy projects in Asia.
Officially announced this week at the COP27 climate conference in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, the partnership seeks to address the current challenges in Asia’s transition to renewable energy.
AIIB and GEAPP are now working together to identify co-financing opportunities, with specific attention towards projects relating to grid-based renewables, distributed renewables and fossil fuel transitioning areas.
Their attention spans projects in both the public and private sectors, where the partnership is forecast to channel $1billion into Asia’s energy transition.
The partnership will enhance assistance in areas such as co-financing operations and private capital mobilisation.
The capital will be directed to those countries eligible for AIIB’s financing activities and that meet the multilateral development bank’s strategies and policies, while also being areas of GEAPP activity in alignment with and furtherance of GEAPP’s charitable objectives.
Although AIIB and GEAPP have cooperated extensively over the past year, this announcement marks AIIB’s first engagement with a global philanthropic foundations-led initiative.
AIIB president Jin Liqun remarked upon the significance of the partnership and strengthened collaborative ties with GEAPP.
“Despite challenges last year, AIIB achieved a 48 per cent climate finance share of total approvals in 2021,” he comments.
“Through our timely collaboration, AIIB will continue striving to find new ways to provide our members with access to additional capital and resources,” continues Liqun.
An exchange of Letters of Intent (LoI) was completed at a signing ceremony in Sharm El-Sheik by AIIB’s VP of policy and strategy, Sir Danny Alexander, and GEAPP’s CEO, Simon Harford.
The signing was joined by Jin Liqun, president of AIIB; Dr Rajiv Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation; Per Heggenes, CEO of IKEA Foundation and Dr Andrew Steer, president and CEO of Bezos Earth Fund.
Harford stated: “Last year, clean energy generation grew by 522 TWh, about a quarter of what is needed to end energy poverty. However, most of this generation occurred in developed countries.
“As a global multilateral development bank (MDB), AIIB has the capital, convening power and commitment to invest in innovative, clean energy projects across developing countries, which makes the Bank an ideal partner to join GEAPP.”
Alexander added: “Our participation in GEAPP marks yet another step forwards for our Bank, in unlocking new resources through co-financing measures, to meet our ambitious climate targets and deliver value to those most in need.
“As a climate-driven, partnerships Bank, our joint work will be focused on project collaboration, and AIIB is delighted to join the alliance of GEAPP as an investment partner in financing a greener, more sustainable future.”
