EBRD's Harry Boyd-Carpenter Names Key Priorities For Supporting Azerbaijan's Green Agenda (Exclusive Interview)

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 18. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), is supporting the Azerbaijani government with a low-carbon pathway for its power sector, Harry Boyd-Carpenter, Managing Director of the EBRD's Sustainable Infrastructure Group said in an exclusive interview with Trend .

“One of the priorities is the auctions process. That's really important because that gives you proper price discovery. That was a very important milestone at COP to get the price. But now we need to make sure the project actually gets delivered, financed, built.

We're also supporting the Azerbaijani government with a low-carbon pathway for its power sector. Next year Azerbaijan will need to submit its next nationally determined contribution- its climate ambition for the next five years. Any government that does that needs a plan. And we want to support the government in preparing it,” he said.

Boyd-Carpenter pointed out that the EBRD is working with the government on national hydrogen strategy.

“Azerbaijan is already good at producing and exporting natural gas and oil. And why couldn't it also be good at exporting and producing green hydrogen and green ammonia?” noted the managing director.

He went on to add that the Bank also cooperates with Azerbaijan through its Green Cities Program.

“Azerbaijan's Ganja city has signed up to the program. Our priority right now is to work with the city of Ganja which is also the first green city in Azerbaijan. And in fact, the next project we hope to do there is a waste water project. Hopefully other cities in Azerbaijan will also be interested in this program. Looking ahead, we are really interested in buildings. That's an area we probably want to prioritize, which is how to improve energy efficiency fundamentally by increasing building efficiency and then also electrifying heating of buildings,” said Boyd-Carpenter.

Innovative strategies to accelerate transition to low-carbon energy

“We want to help countries change their regulatory framework. At the end of COP29, we supported the government of Azerbaijan in running a renewable energy auction, where you get private companies who effectively bid against each other in a dynamic way. We're really proud of that. That's an example of innovative policy,” he said.

Boyd-Carpenter noted that the other thing the EBRD is focused on is how to use financial structures to bring in the private sector.

“There are probably two tools I can mention. One is we work with local banks. We signed two loan agreements during COP29 with Azerbaijani banks. We do that with a set of rules and procedures which help them channel money to green economy, trying to have a structure which gets around the problem,” added the managing director.

Priorities in addressing climate change challenges

“I will be building on success in the sense that the group that I'm taking over, which covers energy and infrastructure, has had a fantastic track record over the last four or five years, and this year will deliver record volumes of investment. The numbers are still increasing. It's still 2024, but it looks like it will be more than 6 billion euros of investments. Three quarters of that will be green. And that's investment in everything starting from renewable energy projects to wastewater projects, to the first green hydrogen project in Central Asia. There's a lot of success already,” he said.

As for the priorities, Boyd-Carpenter said in terms of sectors and themes, number one is the energy transition.

“We know that the world both can afford and must move e to wind and solar power, away from hydrocarbons. It's going to take decades, but we know it can happen and should happen and is affordable. And we can see that really accelerating. Classic example, at COP29, we signed 760 megawatts of solar power in Azerbaijan, which is a big investment,” said the managing director.

Boyd-Carpenter announced that similarly-sized projects, if not larger projects, are coming in Uzbekistan, Egypt, Romania, Poland.

“And then, as you grow the energy portfolio and renewables, you need to make sure that the system can cope with it. So, we're going to do more and more battery projects, energy storage, and to do more and more investments in networks and grids and transmission cables. That's the energy transition piece. And then on the other side, you've got the infrastructure piece, which is much more diverse, with a lot of different elements.

Probably, I would pick two key themes. One is sustainable cities, a green, urban way of life. Because in most societies, people increasingly live in cities. And we've got to make them liveable and sustainable across all sorts of dimensions. 70% of global emissions are attributable to cities, so we have to reduce climate emissions. We're entering into an era where almost every city in the world will be exposed to heat stress at some time in the year. You need to have a city that can absorb heat, that can deal with periods of sustained high temperatures,” he explained.

The managing director noted that the world is entering the era of climate volatity, there are going to be droughts and floods.

“You need cities that can accommodate that. There are things that we can do to make cities greener, friendlier to biodiversity. The second big element, when it comes to infrastructure, is connectivity that has to be delivered in a sustainable manner,” Boyd-Carpenter added.

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