Climate Change

MIGA is working, like the World Bank and IFC, to achieve an average of at least 35% of direct climate finance for the period of the new World Bank Group Climate Change Action Plan (WBG CCAP 2021-2025). We believe this is an ambitious target under extremely challenging investment circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 crisis and the resulting steep decline in foreign direct investment. Nonetheless, MIGA is more focused than ever on delivering climate finance projects, including in the most challenging low-income (IDA) countries and fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS).

MIGA's products have proven to provide protection to cross-border private investors seeking long-term investments in climate mitigation and climate adaptation activities across diverse markets and regions. As one of the only institutions that provides long-maturity guarantees, MIGA will be instrumental in fostering the lock-in of transformational climate action.

In fulfillment of the ambitions of the new CCAP, MIGA is committed to accelerating its efforts, including by continuing to seek opportunities to innovate, leverage its partnerships and participate actively in joint work programs of the World Bank and IFC. As an example, MIGA is fully engaged in developing the first 25 WBG Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs). We are also ensuring that the CCDRs reflect the role of de-risking and credit enhancement solutions in mobilizing private investment for climate action and, where relevant, that the CCDRs aim to capture the potential evolution and implications of political and sovereign credit risks due to unabated climate change impacts in the whole-of-economy framing.

As part of our commitment, MIGA is also working hard to raise our share of climate adaptation finance. We are doing so through a number of channels: i) we are seeking to apply larger amounts of blended finance; ii) we are working along with the World Bank and IFC to leverage the upstream work with governments that aims to catalyze the private sector to invest in climate adaptation; iii) we are mainstreaming climate risk screening for all of MIGA's operations; and (iv) we are seeking opportunities to work with clients to include resilience measures in project design.

This is especially true for infrastructure projects where assets have a long useful life. For example, road and power projects we brought to the Board in FY21 included climate adaptation interventions related to minimizing the impacts of extreme weather. These measures were adopted by the client as a result of MIGA's early engagement on climate risk topics during the project design process.

As articulated in the CCAP and similar to IFC, MIGA will align 85% of Board approved real sector operations starting July 1, 2023 and, two fiscal years later, 100% of these operations. It is important to recognize that to be ready to meet these targets, MIGA, well ahead of the July 1, 2023 target date, will need to begin aligning virtually 100% of our projects at the concept stage.

For its support of financial institutions, MIGA is working with IFC on the MDB (multilateral development bank) methodology.

This phased approach to the Paris Agreement will help ensure that, working closely with our clients, we are well prepared to deliver projects that meet both the mitigation and adaptation goals of the Paris Agreement. The phase-in period is especially important given our growing pipeline of projects, including in IDA and FCS countries, which typically need longer lead times to develop.

Turning to mobilization of private sector finance for climate, MIGA will deliver global climate adaptation and mitigation benefits at scale through enhanced de-risking applications to support new climate opportunities. We will closely collaborate with the World Bank and IFC to leverage the expanded upstream collaboration across the Bank Group to generate greater private sector engagement in climate activities downstream.

MIGA will also strengthen its work with the World Bank and IFC to boost innovation to meet both the opportunities and challenges of climate change. For example, market mechanisms such as carbon markets and emissions trading schemes have the potential to reduce the total cost of implementing countries' Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)—with about half of the current NDCs signaling interest in using forms of international cooperation through Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. MIGA is working with the World Bank on assessing how MIGA products can be deployed to de-risk carbon markets and emissions trading schemes that will be formed under Article 6.

Finally, MIGA will strengthen its collaboration with public and private partners to tackle climate challenges through complementary projects, products and win-win solutions.

Key Transitions

• The new WBG CCAP focuses on increasing our collective efforts on key systems transitions to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.
• In energy systems, MIGA will continue its successful work to support cross-border foreign direct investment into renewables. We will continue to be innovative, using our guarantees to underwrite micro and mini-grids, and storage solutions, that can accelerate delivering sustainable energy and electrification to underserved communities, specifically in IDA and FCS countries.
• In agriculture, food and manufacturing, MIGA will work with clients to support the adoption of low-carbon and climate-resilient actions across all segments of the value chain.
• At MIGA, biodiversity considerations are mainstreamed into projects through our Environmental and Social Performance Standards. While historically we have not included a climate change lens in this work, moving forward MIGA will work to build in the impacts of changing climate on biodiversity patterns.
• In MIGA's sustainable cities projects, building on our experience, we will reach further to find innovative applications of our products to support natural green infrastructure that is environmentally sustainable and resilient. MIGA will focus on working with its clients to make certain that infrastructure projects are adequately climate-proofed and do not result in increased vulnerability to climate change.
• MIGA will also bolster its impactful strategy to deliver climate finance through our work with the financial sector. MIGA's engagement on greening financial institutions will include providing support to financial institutions that will phase out coal-related projects as early as possible but no later than 2030. MIGA will also support these clients through various greening channels including (i) scaling up climate finance and green loans; (ii) greening their own corporate footprint; and (iii) supporting climate risk screening as an integrated risk tool in their credit processes.

In FY21, MIGA issued $1.36 billion in guarantees supporting climate change mitigation or adaptation in 22 countries across 4 regions, which represents 26% of the Agency’s total guarantee issuance. This included the Escotel project in Sierra Leone and Liberia, which will expand the use of solar-powered cell phone towers, and the Bboxx off-grid solar energy project in Rwanda, Kenya, and DRC. MIGA also issued guarantees in support of a geothermal power plant in Ethiopia and four solar power plants in Burkina Faso. Besides, the Agency backed a variety of other climate finance projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, emerging Europe and Asia.

EXAMPLES OF MIGA-SUPPORTED PROJECTS RELATED TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Sierra Leone & Liberia

In December 2020, MIGA issued guarantees of up to US$25.6 million to Escotel Mauritius covering its investments in solar power generation in Sierra Leone and Liberia for a period of up to 10 years. The guarantees will support the provision of electricity and logistical services to power existing and future cell phone towers (TNS) in the two host countries.

The Escotel projects will be providing power through considerably more efficient and climate-friendly power solutions by installing photovoltaic solar panels at each TNS that will either supplement or replace entirely the diesel generators. Significant climate mitigation benefits will be yielded, as it is expected that 600 TNS will be modernized by 2028 in Sierra Leone, resulting in an avoidance of more than 58,000 tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions over the period; in Liberia, nearly 158,000 tons of CO2e emissions will be avoided by the modernization of 612 TNS over the same period.

Rwanda, Kenya & DRC

In FY21, MIGA issued guarantees of up to US$37.1 million to a fund (AIIF3) managed by African Infrastructures Investment Managers (AIIM). The guarantees cover the fund's equity and quasi-equity/shareholder loan investments in Bboxx Capital Limited’s (Bboxx) subsidiaries in Rwanda, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for up to 10 years. An additional guarantee of up to US$5.9 million has also been issued to the Facility for Energy Inclusion’s Off-Grid Energy Access Fund (FEI-OGEF LP) of Mauritius to cover its loan to Bboxx DRC for a period of up to 5 years.

Bboxx designs, manufactures, distributes and finances, decentralized solar-powered systems, and its operations in Rwanda, Kenya and DRC provide customers with affordable access to clean and reliable energy on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis using mobile money. The company’s work has climate mitigation benefits by replacing household use of kerosene and biomass for energy generation, and by using LPG as a clean cooking fuel. Over the next 8 years, approximately 1.9 million metric tons of CO2e are expected to be offset across the three host countries.

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia & Ukraine

In December 2020, MIGA issued guarantees for €218.5 million (US$267.5 million) to ProCredit Holding, covering its investments in its subsidiaries in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine. The guarantees cover the mandatory cash reserves of the subsidiaries held at their respective central banks and allow ProCredit’s subsidiaries to consolidate their ongoing lending operations in Eastern and Southeastern Europe (ESEE) at a time of economic stress and uncertainties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lending supported by MIGA’s guarantees will be directed at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), key drivers of growth and jobs in ESEE countries. 100% of the freed-up capital will be allocated to ProCredit's green/climate loan portfolio comprising business activities in support of energy efficiency and renewable energy high impact transactions that lead to measurable energy savings and/or significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions across industry sectors.

Senegal

In June 2018, MIGA issued US$149.80 million in guarantees covering equity and quasi-equity investments by Lekela Power Holdings (Senegal) Limited of Mauritius in the Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye wind farm project in Senegal. The guarantees were issued for up to 20 years against the risks of transfer restriction, expropriation, war and civil disturbance, and breach of contract.

The project involves the construction, operation, and maintenance of a 158.7 MW wind power farm in Taiba N’Diaye, Senegal, which is 75 km northeast of Dakar and 6 km east of the Atlantic Ocean. The wind farm will be made up of 46 turbines and provide 450,000 MWh of electricity per year to 2 million people, as well as save over 300,000 tons of CO2e annually.