World Bank to Increase Lending for Renewable Energy Projects

0 Comments | Renewable Energy Today, June 8, 2004

The World Bank Group (WBG) recently announced plans to commit to an annual average growth rate of 20 percent during the next five years in its annual financial commitments for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.

According to WBG, the increased lending is expected to double by 2010 the group's current annual allotment of $200 million for such projects.

"Our strategy -- through programs and policies -- will aim to ensure that renewable energy and energy efficiency are seen as economically viable and essential ingredients in the energy choices of our member nations, not marginal considerations," said WBG managing director and International Finance Corporation executive vice president Peter Woicke.

However, environmental organizations, such as Friends of the Earth (FOE), Greenpeace International and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), criticized the World Bank's announcement as "mere spin," maintaining that the proposed increase "is marginal at best and does nothing to address the bank's ongoing bias towards fossil fuels."

"At this rate, it will take [WBG] nearly twenty years before their renewables portfolio reaches current levels of funding for fossil fuels," said FOE International spokesman Janneke Bruil. "It's absurd."

Contact: World Bank, website http://web.worldbank.org; FOE U.K., website http://www.foe.co.uk.

(EIN STAFF: 6/2)