IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Nedbank Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nedbank Group, have partnered to increase financing for renewable energy projects in South Africa. As part of the agreement, IFC will provide Nedbank Limited with a loan of up to $200 million to help it expand its green finance operations. Nedbank is Africa’s first carbon-neutral bank and in 2019 became South Africa’s first commercial bank to launch a green bond on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
This is IFC’s third investment dedicated to green finance in South Africa’s financial sector and is part of IFC’s broader objective to develop South Africa’s climate finance. Through this, IFC aims to support the Government of South Africa’s plan to shift to a lower carbon economy and help the country transition to cleaner forms of power, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and create jobs in the renewables sector.
South Africa has set the goals of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 42 percent by 2025 and diversifying its electricity production to reduce its reliance on coal by 2050. IFC estimates South Africa’s climate-smart investment potential across renewable energy and urban infrastructure, amounts to $588 billion through 2030. The government plans to more than double the country’s power capacity by 2030, with renewables making up as much as 20 percent of the mix.