The Western Cape Government (WCG) has long been at the forefront of advocating a transition to a low carbon economy, reducing its dependence on fossil fuels for energy supply. In order to achieve the goals the WCG has set forth, through its Green Economy Strategy Framework, a significant scaling up of efforts and projects.
The Green Economy investment opportunities in the Western Cape are estimated to amount to tens of billions of rand in the next decade - to put this figure into context, a 140 MW wind farm costs approximately R 2.5 billion. In order to unlock capital to flow to these high-priority projects, it is clear that a holistic approach will be needed to address a potential funding gap. In November 2012, a Green Economy Finance Working Group was established under the Green Economy Work Group and includes representatives from various departments – Human Settlements, Transport and Public Works, Economic Development and Tourism and Environmental Affairs and Development Planning of the WCG, Wesgro, Green Cape, and National Treasury. The key objective of this working group is to mobilize finance for the Green Economy in the Western Cape by creating an enabling environment through provincial government support mechanisms.
In partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), this working group convened a series of breakfast engagements with public and private sector financiers. The purpose of convening these engagements was two-fold:
- to enhance the WCG’s knowledge of the financial resources, funds and vehicles available for green-related investment in the Western Cape, and
- to use these engagements as an opportunity for the WCG to build relationships with public and private entity financiers.
These engagements have been successful in this regard, and have provided a clear understanding of the platform from which the WCG’s Green Economy will be financed, as well as the key stakeholders involved. Using the outcomes of these meetings as a basis, the next step for the Finance Working Group will be to identify specific mechanisms to create an enabling environment for the financing and implementation of high-impact Green Economy projects.
Share your thoughts with us if you are involved in the Green Economy finance field and have an interesting story.