CDB has not provided any fossil fuel lending in three years

Oct 25, 2021 News

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– will continue to push energy transition among member countries

By Kiana Wilburg

Kaieteur News – In support of regional decarbonisation efforts, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) disclosed that it has not provided any fossil fuel lending over the last three years. The financial institution recently disclosed that it intends to further reinforce its support for sustainable energy through its revised Energy Sector Policy and Strategy, currently under development.
The CDB made the foregoing revelation last week as part of its commentary regarding its alignment with the Paris Agreement, which seeks to bring global temperature to 1.5 Degrees Celsius.
The bank was keen to note its belief that mobilisation and effective use of climate finance is of paramount importance to a decarbonised region. With this in mind, the financial institution disclosed that it has made significant strides in financing projects and programmes of its Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) so as to deliver on their Paris Agreement commitments.
The CDB explained that it has made considerable concessional climate finance available to the BMCs through strategic partnerships with several regional and international development partners. In fact, between 2017 and 2020, CDB said its climate finance was approximately US$223 million, accounting for 15% of project approvals during this period.
The financial institution said it will significantly scale up lending and support for climate action in the coming years while adding that this includes a commitment to allocate 25-30% of CDB’s own resources for climate action by 2024. The CDB said it will also leverage additional concessional climate finance through the Global Climate Fund.
In addition to the foregoing, CDB said it is simultaneously strengthening its capacity to manage and monitor its climate action, and has commenced systematic tracking of its climate finance flows using the joint Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) methodology. Furthermore, the Bank said it will continue to reinforce existing partnerships and develop new ones, scale up its climate finance to pursue transformational investments, and further increase its capacities to enhance the effectiveness of its climate action.
In addition to integrating climate change considerations into all new policies and strategies, CDB was keen to note that it is implementing several initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint of its internal operations. The bank said it also continues to mainstream climate change considerations in policy development support and country engagement strategies including assisting BMCs to develop long-term strategies.
CDB said too that it will work closely with other multilateral development banks to refine the ways in which Paris Alignment is assessed, including ensuring that commonly used metrics address the full range of adaptation needs in vulnerable Caribbean small island developing countries.
The financial institution said, “CDB understands the importance of catalysing private sector investment for ambitious climate action in the Caribbean. The Bank is deepening its engagement with the private sector and actively promotes private sector development and competitiveness by supporting an enabling business environment and gender-equitable participation in business and by facilitating public-private partnerships for climate resilience.”
CDB noted that it is also supporting BMCs to develop and implement policies and strategies that create incentives for the private sector to mitigate and adapt to climate change while embracing the transition to net-zero greenhouse emissions.
ABOUT THE CDB
The Caribbean Development Bank is a financial institution that helps Caribbean member countries finance social and economic programs.
CDB was established by an Agreement signed on October 18, 1969, in Kingston, Jamaica, and entered into force on January 26, 1970.
The permanent headquarters of the bank is located at Wildey, St. Michael, Barbados adjacent to the campus of the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology. There are no other branches of the bank. The headquarters serves the entire regional borrowing member countries with staff recruited from their citizens.
CDB’s membership of 28 countries consists of 19 regional borrowing members, four regional non-borrowing members, and five members from outside the Region.
Some of the member countries include Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Colombia, China, Dominica, Germany, Grenada, Guyana, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom and Venezuela.

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