Developing Countries: Climate Change

Lynne Jones
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much (a) the World Bank, (b) multilateral development banks and (c) other international finance organisations have spent on (i) alternative sources of energy, (ii) energy efficiency and (iii) adaptation to climate change in developing countries in each of the last two years; what proportion of this spending was from funds provided by the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Michael Foster
An internationally agreed definition of what constitutes spending on (iii) adaptation to climate change does not currently exist, and the international financial institutions do not have publicly available estimates of their own spending in this area for the last two years. The Department for International Development (DFID) is working with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Development Assistance Committee (DAC) to develop a methodology for collecting statistics from donors on support to adaptation.

DFID does, however, hold the following information on expenditure on (i) alternative sources of energy, and (ii) energy efficiency:

The World Bank Group recently reported $476 million of lending to renewable energy projects, and $1,192 billion to energy efficiency for the year ending 30 June 2008. Disaggregated data are not available for the previous year. Together, this represents 35 per cent. of total World Bank Group energy sector lending for 2008.

The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) investments in alternative sources of energy for the last two years are $121 million in 2007 and $1,152 billion in 2008. ADB’s investments in energy efficiency for the last two years are $547 million in 2007 and $547 million in 2008.

The Inter-American Development Bank’s (IADB) lending and investments in low carbon programmes, including alternative energy and energy efficiency, totalled $960 million in 2008.

For the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), data from 2007 (the only year for which we have accurate data) shows that of total energy sector lending of €1.020 billion, 67 per cent. went to ‘clean energy’ activities, mainly energy efficiency.

It is not possible to state what percentage of spend by the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) on clean energy projects is as a result of UK funding. MDB projects are funded through a variety of sources, including funds leveraged through their capital resources and lending and funding through concessional windows like the International Development Association (IDA), to which donors contribute directly.