Washington, DC (BBN)- The World Bank Group has announced an 87 per cent increase in funding for renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) projects and programs in developing countries in the past fiscal year.
Total RE and EE commitments for the year ended June 30, 2008 reached nearly US$2.7 billion, a World Bank press statement said on Thursday.
The renewable energy and energy efficient investments made up 35 percent of total World Bank Group (WBG) energy commitments for the year (up from 13 percent per year on average in the early 1990’s) with 95 projects in 51 countries, as well as two cross-border projects.
In 2004, at the International Renewable Energies Conference in Bonn, Germany, the Bank Group committed to increase its financial support for new renewable energy and energy efficiency projects by 20 percent per year.
From then until the end of FY 2008, the WBG more than exceeded that goal each year, committing close to $3.7 billion to such projects, compared with the agreed commitment goal of $1.3 billion, the statement noted.
BBN/SI/SS/AD-03October08-3:25 PM (BST)
