IDBZ gets green climate fund accreditation

THE Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe’s (IDBZ) recent accreditation to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the partnership it entered with Norsard, a regional financial group will enhance the bank’s ability to raise funding for climate-friendly projects in the country, chief executive Zondo Sakala has said.

GCF is a global platform created to respond to climate change by investing in low-emission and climate-resilient projects. It was established by 194 governments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in developing countries, and to help vulnerable societies adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change.

With nearly US$11 billion in approved climate funding and a total portfolio of over US$40 billion, GCF is the world’s largest climate fund supporting developing nations.

“Given the bank’s recent accreditation to the Green Climate Fund, we also look forward to cooperation with Norsad in financing well-structured adaptation and mitigation projects,” Dr Sakala said at the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between IDBZ and Norsard that seeks to enhance cooperation on technical funding matters, co-investments, and portfolio management.

“There are vast opportunities in the areas of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and climate-resilient agriculture, just to name but a few,” Sakala added.

Accredited entities are institutions accredited by the GCF to carry out a range of activities, including developing and submitting funding proposals and overseeing the management and implementation of climate-friendly projects and programmes.

Accredited entities range from private, public, non-governmental, national, or international entities that partner with GCF to implement projects. Guided by the GCF investment framework and the priorities of developing country governments.

Norsard Capital, which funded the first solar plant to deliver electricity onto the national grid said Zimbabwe presented a lot of investment opportunities in solar energy.

“There is abundant sunshine in Zimbabwe, which makes it an ideal location to build a lot of solar power plants; to harvest the sun for energy,” said Nathaniel Nyika, the chief investment officer of Norsard

The group has financed mini hydro projects in Zimbabwe.

Fragile hope

There is a shrinking window of opportunity to address the climate crisis. Average global temperature is currently estimated to be 1,1°C above pre-industrial times.

Based on existing trends, the world could cross the 1,5°C threshold within the next two decades and 2°C threshold early during the second half of the century, according to experts.

Limiting global warming to 1,5°C is still narrowly possible and will be determined by the investment over the next decade.

Speaking during the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said the battle must end is “our suicidal war against nature.”

Calling the climate crisis the defining issue of “our time”, Guterres said confronting it must be the first priority of every government and multilateral organisation.

“And yet climate action is being put on the back burner – despite overwhelming public support around the world. Global greenhouse gas emissions need to be slashed by 45 percent by 2030 to have any hope of reaching net zero by 2050,” he said, adding emissions are going up at record levels — to a 14 percent increase this decade.

“We have a rendezvous with climate disaster,” he said, recalling his recent solidarity visit to flood-ravaged Pakistan, “where I saw with my own eyes . . . that one-third of the country is submerged by a monsoon on steroids.”

Scorched earth policies

“Planet earth” Guterres said, is “a victim of scorched earth policies . . . and we ain’t seen nothing yet because the hottest summers of today could be the coolest summers of tomorrow.”

While the G20 emits 80 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions “the poorest and most vulnerable — those who contributed least to this crisis — are bearing its most brutal impacts. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry is feasting on hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits while household budgets shrink and our planet burns,” he said.-ebsuinessweeky