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The Universal Green Energy Access SA, a private equity fund that makes loans in the renewable energy and utilities industries, has seen a setback in its attempt to raise up to $500 million dollars for its renewable energy investments in African countries.
Information obtained by BusinessDay from the Bloomberg Terminal on Thursday, last week, revealed that the PE fund has been in the market for 9 months seeking to raise the money for investment in clean to individuals and businesses in Benin, Kenya, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, and Tanzania.
Donald Trump, US president, announced last week the withdrawal of the world’s biggest economy from the Paris agreement on climate change, saying he wants to “renegotiate” a fairer deal that would not hurt US businesses and workers.
An analyst in a leading PE firms in Lagos said that US withdrawal from the climate accord will hurt Green Energy PE Fund raising effort, but that that the PE fund can still raise the money it needs for its investments.
The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to a statement from the website of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.”
Uk-based media outfit, Independent, had reported that total commitments in new money for renewable energy outpaced new investments in fossil fuels for the first time in 2015 to the tune of $350 billion.
Climate Bonds Initiative, the London-based international advocacy group that seeks to mobilise the bond market for climate change solutions, estimates that the green bonds market stood at $81.0 billion as at the end of 2016. It projects that the green bonds market will grow to $150 billion in 2017.
INNOCENT UNAH
