Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
4/3/2015
Expanding access to electricity in developing nations, while also avoiding building a reliance on high-carbon fossil fuels like coal in those nations, became a point of discussion as the Board of the Green Climate Fund met last week in Songdo, South Korea. “The Fund will need to address two complementary but distinct challenges: first to shift investment toward increases in large scale deployment of low-carbon electricity to avoid continued dependence on fossil fuels such as coal, and second to support the extension of access to sustainable energy services for poor and underserved communities. There is a huge opportunity to partner with public and private investors and implementers in taking on both challenges,” documents from the meeting say.
These two seemingly conflicting goals are illustrated in Asia and Africa. Many countries in Asia have developed a reliance on coal in an effort to combat energy poverty. The situation in many parts of Africa differs somewhat as access to energy is rather low. In Asia, the Board reports, “there is a need to help countries transition to lower emission solutions.” In Africa, there is a need to develop an initial low-carbon energy system. “In both regions, large numbers of people (68 per cent of Africa’s population for example, and hundreds of millions of people in Asia) live without access to energy,” according the documents.
The documents note a lack of investment in low- and no-carbon energy generation technologies, such as carbon capture and storage and renewable energies. “There is a glaring lack of finance to support innovation, including technology research and improvement, as well as innovative financing models. This has been flagged as a significant challenge to realizing the prospects of transitioning to a low emission energy future, and is linked to the high costs of access to finance more generally,” the documents say. “The Fund will need to adopt distinct strategies to support large-scale deployment, scaled-up finance, and cost reductions.”
Fund Does Not Prohibit Coal Plant Funding
Norwegian environmental group Bellona expressed disappointment following the meeting that the fund had not yet banned unabated coal fired power plants from eligibility for funding. “Bellona strongly disapproves of any UN climate funding being directed towards the construction of unabated coal power plants as they lock in fossil emissions that go counter to global decarbonisation objectives. On the other hand, Bellona is pleased that the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology is among the list of supported activities under the GCF. We would therefore ask that the Board takes steps to ensure that funding is granted only to coal plants equipped with CCS,” Jonas Helseth, Director of Bellona Europa, said in a release.
