The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) announced a commitment to lend, invest, and facilitate a total of $10bn to financing projects worldwide focused on environmentally sustainable initiatives in the next ten years, according to a Wednesday statement.
The commitment follows the publication of NBAD’s Financing the Future of Energy Report, which identified a funding gap of $48tn needed to allow to meet global energy demand in the next 20 years.
“The world is heading towards a very significant funding gap for energy globally,” Group CEO of NBAD Alex Thursby said.
He said this is particularly true across the West-East Corridor, which is the region that stretches from Africa through the Middle East and Asia.
“We believe that even in the current climate of low oil prices, the transition towards more renewable sources in the energy mix will continue because the underlying drivers are long-term and strong. It is for this reason that we have made this commitment of $10bn today,” Thursby said.
NBAD established a sustainable business team in August 2015 to evaluate and create new financing products to support the development of renewable energy and sustainable business.
“Our research identified that there is approximately $640bn of investment required for renewable energy projects across the West-East Corridor,” Head of Sustainable Business Banking at NBAD Nathan Weatherstone said.
NBAD announced the Financing the Future of Energy Report at the Global Financial Markets Forum 2015 in Abu Dhabi.
PricewaterhouseCoopers and the University of Cambridge in collaboration with Masdar Institute for Science and Technology were commissioned by NBAD to conduct the report.
In September 2015, NBAD adopted the Equator Principles, a voluntary set of guidelines based on International Finance Corporation (IFC) standards on social and environmental sustainability and the World Bank Group’s environmental, health, and safety guidelines.
