TIRANA (Albania), October 22 (SeeNews) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it has received an 87 million euro ($100.2 million) contribution approved by the Green Climate Fund’s (GCF) board to help cities in nine countries, including four countries in Southeast Europe (SEE), address climate change.
The GCF contribution is the first tranche towards the total of 228 million euro requested by EBRD.
The funding will support the EBRD’s green cities facility for climate-focused sustainable urban development in Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and Moldova, as well as in Armenia, Georgia, Jordan, Mongolia and Tunisia, the EBRD said in a press release late on Friday.
“The GCF support will complement EBRD’s financing through concessional lending, investment grants and support for technical assistance to cities in the nine target countries,” the statement noted, adding that the initiative is part of the EBRD green cities framework that builds on the Bank's two decades of experience in investing in municipal and environmental infrastructure.
“The full facility will benefit an estimated 23 million people and lead to almost 12 million tonnes of CO2 savings, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from over 2.3 million passenger vehicles driven for one year,” the lender added.
Through the facility’s support, EBRD cities will develop green city action plans (GCAPs) to identify priorities and actions to overcome environmental, social and economic challenges.
“Three pilot GCAPs undertaken in Yerevan, Tbilisi and Tirana are completed, and four new GCAPs are now underway in Chisinau, Belgrade, Batumi and Gyumri in the facility’s target countries. Two further GCAPs are planned in Amman and Ulaanbaatar in the near future.”
Since 2006, the EBRD has committed over 26 billion euro to projects furthering the transition to the green economy across its 38 economies.
($ = 0.8682 euro)