European fund for sustainable projects around the Mediterranean

Six financial institutions (three of them French, one German, one Italian, and the EIB) are committed to establish the Mediterranean Carbon Fund to support low carbon projects in southern and eastern Mediterranean countries

Six European public financial institutions have undertaken to establish a fund to finance low-carbon projects in less developed countries of the Mediterranean. The fund, called Mediterranean Carbon Fund (MCF) will be set up within the Union for the Mediterranean (by 2011) and the overall fund size could reach 200 million euros.

The institutions involved are the European Investment Bank (EIB), the French Development Agency (AFD), and the mixed agency Proparco and CDC Climat (both French), the German bank for development KfW Bankengruppe, and the Italian Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.

MCF will provide advice and will finance projects to be developed in the southern and eastern areas around the Mediterranean, where it is estimated that over the next 5 years investments  will reach at least 100 billion in energy infrastructure, that is necessary to reduce blackouts and to meet the domestic power consumption growth. It will mainly support projects regarding renewable sources, energy efficiency and waste management under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. To guarantee the number and quality of the projects, the MCF be supplemented by an upstream study and technical assistance facility.

(June 2010)