Thursday, April 14, 2016

Caribbean: Development Agencies Help Finance Geothermal Energy Projects

Region gets US $3B in aid of renewable energy efforts (The Daily Herald)

Japan and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are partnering to invest US $3 billion in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to support renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects, as well as quality infrastructure projects related to energy savings.

The agreement between the IDB and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) expands on the Co-financing for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency CORE program, which was created in 2012 to support energy investments to mitigate climate change impacts in Central America and the Caribbean.

It will increase the target amount of JICA’s highly concessional loan window from US $1 billion to US $3 billion, and will extend the term of the program until April 2021. This will also broaden CORE’s geographical reach, enabling partners to fund projects in all low-and middle-income IDB borrowing member countries, as well as more vulnerable Caribbean economies not previously covered by the program.

The first co-financing loans under CORE have been approved by the partners to fund renewable energy and energy efficiency programs in Nicaragua and Honduras, as well as efforts to develop geothermal energy in Costa Rica. Co-financing programs for the Eastern Caribbean for development of geothermal energy are currently in the advanced stage of preparation.

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