Norfund Announced the CIF of $1 billion (NOK 10 billion) to Eight Nations, Including Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s energy and power sector is in transition from traditional fossil-fuel to renewable energy. Adoption of Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan (MCPP), one of milestone policy document that sets an ambitious Renewable Energy (RE) target- essentially shows country’s utmost interest to move towards green energy. The Norwegian Climate Investment Fund (CIF) managed by Norfund, has taken a significant step fulfilling that development goal and inaugurated the landmark titled "Investing in Our Planet: Introducing the Norfund Climate Investment Fund", around $1 billion (NOK 10 billion) in the renewable energy sector of eight countries, including Bangladesh. The event as Organised by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Dhaka and the Nordic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) in Bangladesh at Sheraton Dhaka held at 16th October.

In 2022 the Climate Investment Fund (CIF) managed by Norfund became operational. The fund is Norway’s most important tool in accelerating the global energy transition by investing in renewable energy in developing countries with large emissions from coal and other fossil power production. To help developing countries build their economy on the backbone of renewable energy, the Climate Investment Fund will allocate 10 billion NOK from 2022-2027 to invest in renewable energy and low carbon technologies.

The event was attended by the distinguished stakeholders from Norfund, Norwegian Embassy, Nordic Chamber of Commerce & Industries (NCCI), Power Development Board o Bangladesh, Power Division (Ministry), Sustainable and Renewable Authority (SREDA), Development Partners (UN, World Bank, ADB, IFC, USAID, UKAID, JICA), Other Embassies, Solar Power Producer & Large-Scale Consumers.

SOLARIC, the largest Rooftop Solar Power Plant organization is really esteemed to be invited at the seminar as the representative of Private Solar Power Producer in Bangladesh. SOLARIC’s director, Engr. Naznin Akhter has attended the event on behalf of SOLARIC and presented a key presentation of Bangladesh’s Solar energy sector scenario and potentialities.

The event shed light on Bangladesh's green energy transition including increased investments in renewable energy, the development of conducive policies to facilitate green energy investments, the removal of fiscal barriers to renewable energy accessories, and collaboration with development partners for technical and financial support to accelerate the transition.

The chief guest of the event Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, special envoy to the prime minister for climate change and chairperson, parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said, "Bangladesh is not only in need of investments in tackling climate impacts but also required technical assistance in building knowledge and capacity and The Norfund Climate Investment Fund can be a great facilitator.’’

The keynote & presentations were shared by Norfund, NCCI, EU / World Bank / IFC, Solar Power Producer (Private sector) & Large-scale Consumer.

Mr. Anders Blom, Senior Vice President (SVP) of Renewable Energy, Norfund, said, "The climate investment fund will allocate NOK 10 billion over the next five years, with 1 billion coming from Norfund's capital and 1 billion from the state budget each year. The fund became formally operative in May 2022, and Norfund has already put over 2 billion NOK to work."

Engr. Naznin Akhter has mentioned, “SOLARIC has experience operating more than fifteen Solar Power Plant with the World's Largest Industrial Rooftop Solar capacity 40MWp in a single site and a target of 500 MWp near future among the 5000MWp potential in Bangladesh. SOLARIC has led the way in the OpEx model solar project and established the first-ever history of collecting monthly solar electricity bills from the private sector in Bangladesh through its role as a RESCO since 2018”

H.E, Espen Rikter-Svendsen, Norwegian ambassador to Bangladesh, said, "Access to capital – so important to develop the renewable energy industry. Reliable and experienced financial partners are key to facilitating further developments in renewable power generation."

The Climate Investment Fund (CIF) will prioritize existing Norfund strategy countries to maintain focus and build on existing capabilities. Among existing strategy countries, we will prioritize 8 core countries: India, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Srilanka, Bangladesh, and South Africa. Such step taken by the Norfund & Norwegian Embassy of Bangladesh is highly appreciated throughout the country's energy stakeholders and relevant parties.