Colombia is anticpated to be the first country to profit from a new fund to help the roll-out of alternative energy around the globe.
The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) will lend Colombia $70m in a a low interest rate rate in order that it can invest in its transition from dirty to wash energy.
The money is targeted at infrastructure which helps get renewable electricity to communities and businesses including batteries to keep renewable electricity, transmission lines to maneuver it around and facilities to create green hydrogen by using it.
The money develops from a $300m pot made up of one-off donations from the governments from the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Switzerland.
Other countries set to profit with up to $70m each are Kenya, Mali, Fiji and Ukraine.
If rich nations give more, the next developing countries on the priority list are Brazil, India, Indonesia, Turkiye and Costa Rica.
An official told Climate Home “there is definitely an active fundraising campaign underway to draw in more resources from donors and support additional countries”.
The Colombian government expects the $70m will mobilise $280m more from multilateral development banks and carbon finance markets.
It predicts the spending will save a total of 1.6 million a lot of co2 from entering the atmosphere. That’s about 1% from the greenhouse gas Colombia produces each year.
Colombia gets about three-quarters of its electricity from hydropower dams, a zero-carbon source. The rest is mostly from non-renewable fuels.
The Colombian government intends to use the money for loans and guarantees to green projects.
Red tape challenge
The government states that delays to environmental permits could threaten some projects’ success, especially following the government approved the Escazu agreement which protects environmental defenders.
Colombian environmentalist Martin Ramirez told Climate Home the social and environmental licenses to construct transmission lines are “almost impossible to obtain fast”.
He added: “There is a lot of bureaucracy and red tape in Colombia, it’s getting harder and harder” and that officials can demand bribes to approve projects.
Green hydrogen facilities are often easier than transmission lines, he explained, because they only cover a small area and so only one community needs to be consulted.
Another risk, the government’s plan acknowledges, is political instability. Colombian presidents get just one four-year term so left-wing environmentalist president Gustavo Petro leaves office in 2026.
The Climate Investment Funds was placed in 2008 and it has received $11 billion from 14 countries. It works from the same building as the World Bank in Washington DC. It recently dedicated $500m to Indonesia’s energy transition.
