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China-backed AIIB unveils US$50 billion loan plan for climate action
- Plans to triple investment in climate-related projects over the next seven years unveiled at board of governors’ meeting in Egypt
- Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urges the bank and other lenders to help emerging economies with low-cost loans
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The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is positioning itself as a key financier of climate-related projects, with the unveiling of plans to triple its climate financing over the next seven years.
The multilateral lender – set up as an alternative to the World Bank in 2016 – aims to increase allocation for climate-related funding to at least US$7 billion annually by 2030, roughly a three-fold increase from last year’s US$2.6 billion.
Cumulatively, the AIIB says it will advance US$50 billion for climate change mitigation and adaptation by the end of this decade, mobilising capital to support its members’ efforts to fight the consequences of global warming.
The Climate Action Plan (CAP) was released on the sidelines of the bank’s board of governors’ meeting in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday – its first in-person annual gathering since 2019.
AIIB president Jin Liqun said the plan “outlines our ambition to bring capital, capacity and convening power to help our members in their efforts to address climate change”, adding that it “builds on what is already a significant area of focus for our bank”.
According to Jin, the CAP will build on the AIIB’s 2020 pledge to stop bankrolling coal-powered projects and instead ramp up its investments in environmentally friendly schemes.
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