The UAE and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) on Wednesday announced the Energy Transition Accelerator Financing (ETAF), a new global climate finance facility to accelerate the transition to renewable energy in developing countries.
The UAE committed $400 million in funding provided by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) toward the platform’s goal of securing a minimum of $1 billion in total funding.
Through co-financing, ETAF will aim to mobilize an additional $2 billion in energy transition investments, targeting a total deployment of 1.5 GW of clean renewable energy generation and storage by 2030.
ETAF will be managed by IRENA from its Abu Dhabi headquarters, capitalizing on the UAE’s climate finance market and renewable energy innovation infrastructure.
The new accelerator platform will help mitigate investment risks and finance renewable energy projects in developing countries that may otherwise struggle to secure sufficient capital, IRENA said in a statement.
The formal launch of ETAF took place on the sidelines of the COP 26 United Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow in the presence of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Al Nahyan said, “The UAE is proud to act decisively in pushing forward a responsible, sustainability-led agenda, and in partnering with other nations to enable the significant benefits of renewable energy.”
Francesco La Camera, the Director-General of IRENA, said the ETAF reflects IRENA’s efforts to serve its over 180 member countries as an “indispensable energy transformation partner”.
The new UAE-IRENA partnership to establish the ETAF platform builds on the long-term collaboration between IRENA and ADFD, which includes seven cycles of the $350 million IRENA-ADFD Project Facility. Between 2013 and 2020, the facility financed 26 projects in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, notably including Small Island Developing States.
ADFD has so far worked with several clean energy partners and governments in 65 countries to support the development of 90 renewable energy projects that can generate more than 9,000 megawatts of electricity. With the new ETAF contribution, ADFD’s total financing for renewable energy projects now stands at $1.8 billion.