By Simone Rensch
The UK has pledged £100m extra funding to renewable energy projects in Africa giving hundreds of thousands access to electricity, the government has announced.
This triples the funds for the Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP) and will support up to 40 more renewable projects over the next five years in Sub-Saharan Africa, the government said in a statement.
The funding could also unlock an extra £156m of private finance into renewable energymarkets in Africa, the statement suggested.
Energy and clean growth minister Claire Perry said: “At home we’re world leaders in cutting emissions while growing our economy and abroad we’re showing our international leadership by giving countries a helping hand to shift to greener, cleaner economies.
“This £100m will help communities harness the power of their natural resources to provide hundreds of thousands of people with electricity for the first time.
“Building these clean, reliable sources of energy will also create thousands of quality jobs in these growing green economies.”
The new funding is in addition to £48m previously committed to the REPP.
It will support projects that include solar, wind, biomass, hydro and geothermal technologies, and is expected to create 8,000 jobs during development and operation.
The commitment is part of the UK’s promise to invest £5.8bn in international climate finance by 2020.
