As Vietnam accelerates efforts to transition to low-carbon growth, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is providing a US$70 million loan to Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank)—one of the country’s leading banks in climate finance—to increase its funding for renewable energy projects in the country.
With the loan, HDBank expects to expand its climate finance portfolio to more than US$800 million by 2025, resulting in a reduction of over 54,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year from 2021-2025 and thereafter.
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Building the capacity of private banks will help scale up climate finance markets, supporting climate change adaptation and resilience, and accelerate the shift to more sustainable lower-carbon economies, said Alfonso Garcia Mora, IFC Regional Vice President for Asia and the Pacific.
As Vietnam recovers from COVID-19, it’s a historic chance for the country to prioritize climate-smart and sustainability-linked solutions with increased private sector participation. This will help Viet Nam build back better, greener, and more sustainably, he added.
Climate change is a strategic pillar of IFC’s engagement in Vietnam. The aim is to catalyze finance and promote private sector solutions for climate action. IFC is supporting four Vietnamese commercial banks to expand their climate finance portfolios to US$1.2 billion by 2025.
As part of the World Bank Group Climate Change Action Plan 2021-2025, IFC and the World Bank are developing a new diagnostic tool—the Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR)—to help Vietnam align its climate action with broader development efforts.
By Thuy Dung @ VGP
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Source: Vietnam Insider