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Up to 12 South African low-carbon projects could benefit from technical assistance from the UK’s Climate Finance Accelerator program, says UK deputy high commissioner to South Africa, Adam Bye.
The Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA) is a technical assistance program funded by the UK government, which supports developing countries achieve their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement.
“It is really heartening that a number of projects from the first cohort have progressed to deals with customers and financial providers as a result of CFA support,” said Bye.
South Africa is among the eight countries where climate-smart projects are being assisted. Others include Colombia, Nigeria, Mexico, Turkey, Peru, Pakistan, and Egypt. The objective of the program is to support the bankability of climate-smart projects, especially where availability and access to climate finance is a challenge, Bye said.
Bye was speaking at the virtual launch of the program’s second phase on Thursday. The CFA ran its first phase in South Africa last year, where 13 low-carbon project developers were selected out of 120 applications. The chosen projects benefitted from training in various aspects.
The UK partners with local entities, such as the National Business Initiative (NBI) and GreenCape, to provide training. The project developers also get a chance to attend workshops in London.
Among these projects is Everlectric – an electric vehicles and service business. Everlectric is partnering with transport logistics company DSV, in assisting retailer Woolworths in the rollout of electric-panel vans. The electric vehicle project will help Woolworths reduce its carbon emissions.
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Speaking at the virtual launch, co-founder of Everlectric, Ndia Magadagela, shared that one of the benefits of the CFA was having a “set of professional eyes” looking at its project pitch to refine its business case. The training also shed light on business aspects to consider for their business cases – such as gender equality and social inclusion, said Magadegela. The CFA also helped with introductions to financiers.
