AIIB committed to supporting clean energy projects

Since its opening in January last year, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has loaned aroundUS$3 billion to 28 projects.

The AIIB will consider many projects this year. "We are assessing 19 projects now," said Joachim von Amsberg, vice governor of AIIB.

The first multilateral financial agency which China proposed to establish, AIIB has 57 founding members, among which China contributed US$29.7 billion in capital stock subscriptions, 30.34 percent of the total, making it the largest stakeholder of the bank.

AIIB issued US$210 million loans to support the construction of 11 photovoltaic power generation projects in Egypt. These projects' total installed capacity is 490 MW, and can cut half a million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year in Egypt.

Von Amsberg said the global trends of energiewende and climate change are key fields that AIIB eyes. He said AIIB is considering to raise the requirements of the coal power projects, making it harder for them to apply for loans from AIIB.

In June, AIIB announced the principles on its support of energy projects, which should be safe and able to reduce carbon emissions.

Although the bank has not declared that it won't support coal power, which remains a staple source of energy in Asia, it is almost inevitable that it will reduce the investment in the sector by a large margin in the future.

As for fossil fuels, AIIB has provided loans to natural gas pipeline projects in Azerbaijan and Bangladesh and a natural gas power station in Myanmar.

Besides, AIIB has also taken part in the waterpower projects in Tajikistan, Pakistan and Indonesia.

According to Von Amsberg, although these countries have different conditions in energy and their energy strategies, the purpose is to help expedite the client's energy transition.

He said AIIB will consider supporting nuclear power projects in the future, but are not permitted to as of yet.

AIIB regards helping Asian populous cities to solve air pollution and regional pollution as a major challenge. World Trade Organization's data shows that the highest ranking 20 countries of the density of PM 2.5, the harmful inhalable particles in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns, are located in Asia. 

AIIB will work with other multilateral agencies to explore new mechanisms to solve the pollution issue, lowering the pollutions harm to human health, he said.

AIIB also pays special attention to the use of public-private partnership to secure more financial support for energy upgrading projects in developing countries, he added.