June 27 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Tuesday launched a Green Economy Financing Facility (GEFF) for Romania, offering 100 million euro ($111.8 million) in loans.
The framework is designed to help Romanian households invest in energy efficiency, renewable energy and water-saving solutions, the EBRD said in a press release.
It is the first time that the EBRD is financing energy efficiency in Romania’s residential sector. Loans will be provided via local partner banks.
"Most of Romania’s residential buildings were constructed between 1960 and 1990 with low thermal insulation. While energy efficiency improvements are urgently needed, access to finance for such investments remains limited," EBRD regional director for Romania and Bulgaria Matteo Patrone said.
Banca Transilvania, the first local lender to join the framework, has received a 40 million euro loan for on-lending to households, housing associations and service providers for energy-saving investments. The TaiwanICDF, which is in charge of Taipei China’s overseas development programme, has contributed $12 million to the loan.
In 2007, the EBRD launched its first the Energy Efficiency Finance Facility (EEFF) and in 2011 it developed the Romania SME Sustainable Energy Finance Facility (RoSEFF).
In total, the bank has channelled some 4 billion euro in green financing through similar programmes in 24 countries to date.
GEFF is part of the EBRD’s Green Economy Transition approach, under which the Bank aims to dedicate 40% of its annual investments to climate finance by 2020, compared with an average of around 25% in the previous five years.
($= 0.8945 euro)