The €202 million ($230 million) NAMA Facility has given the go-ahead to award cash to carbon-cutting projects in South Africa and Guatemala, taking the number approved for funding to 14.
The Facility uses money from Germany, the UK, Denmark, and the European Commission, and has delivered the vast majority of cash to developing nations planning the so-called Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs).
According to statement on its website, the latest approvals go to:
- South Africa – to design policies that incentivise private companies for installing energy efficiency measures in public sector buildings.
- Guatemala – to improve energy efficiency in rural homes, cutting the need for indigenous communities to use unsustainable firewood for cooking.
The projects are in additional to three in Kenya, China and Colombia, which were approved to receive cash under the Facility’s third funding call in December.
“All five pre-selected projects have been linked to the partner countries’ INDCs to the Paris Agreement and thus can serve the actual implementation of their (I)NDCs,” the statement said.
In addition, a Thailand-based NAMA to impose regulations to stimulate a market in energy efficient fridges and air conditioners that was approved during the Facility’s second funding call was given the green light to advance and stands to receive up to €14.7 million.
FACTFILE:
- NAMAs are a set of emission-curbing policies, strategies, or projects that a developing country takes on a voluntary basis in line with its national development objectives. They evolved out of the 2009 UN climate conference in Copenhagen, whereby richer nations were required to take on emission targets and to help pay for NAMAs in the developing world, though NAMAs also can be undertaken without cash from richer nations.
- As of May 1, the total support offered by richer nations offered was $176 million. That’s just 2.2% of the total $8 billion in assistance requested by governments to help cover their total cost of $39.1 billion, according to UNEP DTU, which tracks NAMAs worldwide.
By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com
