European Energy Fund now endowed with more than 100 million euro
On the initiative of the German Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, at the Climate Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, the European Union introduced a new fund to promote investments in efficient energy technologies and the use of renewable energy sources (GEREF: Global Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund). The Fund will be endowed with 80 million euro for an initial period of four years. The Fund will underwrite the credit risks of investments in these technologies in developing countries thus enabling an investment volume of up to 1 billion euro.
In the next four years Germany will contribute an additional 24 million euro to this Fund. Triggered by the German initiative, other member states of the European Union have also committed themselves to increasing their contribution to the Fund. The additional German contribution alone will raise the Fund to more than 100 million euro thus increasing the potential investment volume to around 1.25 billion euro. At the climate conference in Nairobi the developing countries expressed their special appreciation of this initiative.
Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel: "With regard to climate protection, decoupling economic growth from GHG emissions ranks among the major problems in developing countries. Worldwide, 1.6 billion people do not have any access to energy supply systems. Improving their standard of living and economic growth are therefore directly linked to their access to energy and an increasing energy consumption in developing countries."
In recent years, the industrialised countries have developed ever more efficient and above all climate friendly energy generation technologies. Transferring these technologies is therefore central to decoupling an increasing energy use from GHG emissions in developing countries. Renewable energies, in particular, allow for energy consumption without releasing greenhouse gases and facilitate access to energy supply without the need to construct expensive electricity networks. Renewable energies therefore present an important solution especially for rural regions in the developing countries.