OPIC Loan Links Micro Borrowers to Clean Energy Products Through Carbon Markets
December 2, 2011
(OPIC)
DURBAN, South Africa – Low-income populations’
access to clean energy products such as clean
stoves for cooking and heating, water purifiers
and solar lighting will be made easier and more
affordable through a $10 million loan from the
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)
to a financial intermediary which links the
purchase of those products to carbon markets.
MicroEnergy Credits (MEC), based in Seattle,
will use the OPIC loan to pay for the
development of carbon credit programs with
MEC’s partner microfinance institutions, which
will offer clean energy products to low-income
micro borrowers around the world. OPIC will be
repaid by income generated through MEC’s sale
of carbon credits in carbon markets using
Emissions Reductions Purchase Agreements.
Micro borrowers will benefit from affordable
access to new clean energy technologies which
are not readily available in the market place.
Those products will in turn reduce borrowers’
energy costs, improve their household health –
for example, by reducing smoke inhalation
caused by less efficient cook stoves – and
enhance their productivity by extending their
hours of business operation through the use of
solar lighting.
“Making clean energy technology available to
individual micro borrowers and micro
entrepreneurs on a widespread basis is an
important – and often overlooked – part of the
international effort to reverse climate
change,” said OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth
Littlefield. “This landmark project has the
potential to transform low-income populations’
access to affordable clean energy products, and
in the process improve both their health and
prospects for economic growth. Partnering with
MicroEnergy Credits to deliver innovative
financing through the use of carbon credits
only makes the project more remarkable.”
April Allderdice, CEO of MicroEnergy Credits,
said “we believe microfinance institutions,
with their enormous market reach, have an
important role to play in providing access to
clean energy products and services to people at
the bottom of the economic pyramid. OPIC’s
investment will help MicroEnergy Credits
accelerate our growth in high potential markets
with significant unmet demand for affordable
clean energy products.”
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