December 10 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it has started discussions with international organisations on how to support the Western Balkans and Ukraine in phasing out coal.
Organisations behind the Platform Initiative in Support of Coal Regions in Transition in Western Balkans and Ukraine, including the EBRD, the World Bank Group, the College of Europe, the Energy Community Secretariat and the European Commission agreed to join efforts to support the transition towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient future in their first meeting held online on December 10-11, the EBRD said in a statement on Thursday.
"We are pleased to see the start of the coal transition process in the Western Balkans and Ukraine and we stand ready to provide both policy dialogue, technical assistance and financing support to the governments to shift from coal to clean energy sources," Zsuzsana Hargitai, the EBRD's Director for the Western Balkans, said.
"The EBRD has financed nearly 500 MW of wind and solar capacity in the Western Balkans region in the last three years," she added.
The Platform Initiative, created in September 2019, will assist the coal regions of the Western Balkans and Ukraine in developing and implementing comprehensive policies that enable inclusive strategies for transitioning to low-carbon energy systems by bringing together international institutions and partners in both areas to deliver knowledge, share lessons learned from regions in the European Union and beyond, and provide planning support and financing.
The EBRD's Green Economy Transition (GET) approach 2021-25 aims to increase the bank’s green financing to more than half its annual business volume by 2020, while helping countries where it works build low carbon and resilient economies.