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The World Bank launches its guarantee platform with a focus on green projects: The World Bank Group has launched a new platform to help triple its annual guarantee issuances — focusing on projects that address energy access, climate change, and resource allocation — to USD 20 bn by 2030, according to a statement. The initiative — which will operate in partnership with International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) — aims to back “new innovative financing, including carbon credits, debt-for-nature swaps and off-grid energy solutions in remote parts of Africa,” MIGA Executive Vice President Hiroshi Matano told Reuters.
The details: The platform will offer a simplified menu of guarantee options, including credit guarantees, trade finance guarantees, and political risk insurance, catering to public and private sector projects. The guarantee reforms are a part of the lender’s target to increase its overall lending to USD 150 bn over the next decade to alleviate the impact of climate change and other global crises.
REMEMBER- MENA stands to gain a lot from the new reforms: The World Bank said during COP28 it plans to increase climate finance to MENA up to USD 10 bn by 2025, as part of a target to expand its global funding capacity to USD 40 bn by the same timeframe.
BYD reaches record EV sales as prices are slashed: China-based carmaker BYD sold a record amount of electric and hybrid vehicles in Q2 2024 at over 340k due to price cuts across models and rolling out new technologies, according to Bloomberg. Quarterly EV sales alone reached 426k units which almost put the company ahead of Tesla — whose sales have been dropping in China and Europe — as the leading global EV producer. Exports also performed well at over 100k units for the first time in a quarter. However, trade tensions between China and Western nations are threatening the company’s predicted growth for Q3.
OTHER STORIES WORTH KNOWING ABOUT THIS MORNING-
- Shell halts its EU biofuel unit: Shell has temporarily halted construction on its Rotterdam biofuels plant — one of Europe’s largest energy transition projects — due to project delivery challenges and current market conditions. The plant was initially set to start production in April, but is now scheduled to operate at the end of the decade. (The Financial Times)
