Clean Energy
With global investment in clean energy experiencing rapid growth since 2004, developing countries are increasingly putting renewable energy and other low carbon energy sources center stage in their efforts to support economic growth and poverty reduction. Clean energy sources are attractive for many reasons, including supply diversification, increased energy independence, fostering new industries, reducing air and water pollution, and contributing to global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This has led to a surge in World Bank lending to low carbon energy projects, which was US$5.9 billion in 2011, and a corresponding increase in demand for the analytical work and technical assistance that ESMAP helps provide to support policy development and investment preparation in our client countries.
ESMAP is helping client countries to scale up clean energy investment by building consensus on priorities, supporting the development of a conducive policy environment, and facilitating the consideration of technical, financial and cross-sectoral options that go well beyond 'business as usual'. Specific areas of work include:
- A series of renewable energy handbooksand an updated toolkit to help guide the development of technology and country-focused investment programs that will lead to bankable projects.
- A package of training events to improve the skills base within the World Bank to support increased investment in clean energy.
- Analytical work and targeted technical assistance to improve the dataset on renewable energy resources, facilitate grid integration and the deployment of smartgrids, and support mobilization of climate finance and other sources of funding.
- Support to the World Bank regions for country-specific policy analysis and capacity-building.
ESMAP also provides a range of support for low carbon development planning, including modelling tools, guidance and funding for economy-wide or energy sector studies to determine long term climate change mitigation potential, derive the costs and benefits, and mainstream this analysis into central economic planning.
For further information on ESMAP's clean energy work please contact Pierre Audinet at esmap@worldbank.org
Resources
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For ESMAP's work on mainstreaming climate risk management into energy sector planning, including the HEAT Toolkit, please go to the Climate Resilience and Adaptation section.
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The Energy Forecasting Framework and Emissions Consensus Tool is an Excel-based, bottom-up tool that enables governments and practitioners to make decisions about low-carbon growth based on open and transparent analysis of development scenarios and green house gas emissions.
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The Marginal Abatement Cost Tool can help to assess the costs of avoiding GHG emissions for a given scenario and range of technologies by simultaneously comparing mitigation and sequestration options.
Publications
- Regulatory and Financial Incentives for Scaling up Concentrating Solar Power in Developing Countries
News