About ETAF

ETAF’s journey started with the long-standing collaboration between IRENA and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), which initiated a partnership to deploy resources to finance renewable energy (RE) projects in developing countries in 2013. Between 2013 and 2020, the IRENA/ADFD Facility made funding available for 26 renewable energy projects in 21 developing countries, creating socioeconomic and climate resilience benefits for over 4 million people.

Building on the success of this first initiative, the UAE announced its support for IRENA’s multi-stakeholder platform, the Energy Transition Accelerator Financing (ETAF) platform, anchoring it with a pledge of USD 400 million provided via ADFD. ETAF is dedicated to implementing renewable energy projects to accelerate the energy transition in emerging economies. This commitment was reinforced at COP27 when the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) pledged USD 300 million, Masdar USD 200 million, and Swiss Re joined to provide de-risking services, thereby elevating the platform's total capital allocation to almost USD 1 billion.

In 2023, the momentum continued when the OPEC Fund and IDB came on board as funding partners, pledging USD 250 million and USD 100 million respectively towards renewable energy financing.

IRENA, as the coordinating secretariat of the ETAF platform, is tasked with ensuring its smooth operation, managing the journey of each project from submission to the delivery of final recommendations to our partners. This involves a rigorous evaluation of each project submission against a set of eligibility criteria, with qualifying proposals being assigned scores.

ETAF is leveraging:

  1. IRENA’s global geographic footprint and unparalleled knowledge of renewable energy.
  2. ADFD’s 50 years of experience in concessional and development financing worldwide and the track record built with the IRENA-ADFD Facility implemented from 2013 to 2020. ADFD anchors the ETAF with USD 400 million capital allocation.
  3. AIIB’s global membership and expertise in investing in green infrastructure as the Bank unlocks new capital, new technologies and new ways to connect Asia and the world.
  4. Swiss Re’s global experience providing risk advisory, de-risking strategies and insurance solutions working with IFIs and project developers, with nearly 160 years of underwriting experience, and investor to support project development.
  5. Masdar’s technical and project development expertise, together with their market knowledge as an equity investor. Masdar will equity invest in selected private sector-sponsored projects.
  6. OPEC Fund’s nearly a half-century of experience in development finance and technical assistance with a track record on essential needs such as energy access.
  7. IDB’s unique capabilities as the foremost international financial institution providing development finance in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Our Goal

  1. Facilitating ETAF’s funding partners' capital mobilisation to scale the financing of renewable energy technologies to 5 GW by 2030.
  2. Supporting the implementation of ambitious National Determined Contributions (NDCs) to meet the Paris Agreement targets (addressing mitigation, adaptation and climate resilience). Contribute to the realisation of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while serving strategic national objectives such as energy access and security, economic diversification and sustainable impact.

Strategy

  1. Building and channelling a robust pipeline of investment-ready projects from IRENA's member countries, with a keen focus on developing countries.
  2. Facilitating the funding of renewable energy projects, subject to ETAF’s Funding Partners’ due diligence and credit approval processes.
  3. Capitalising on the complementarities of the Funding Partners, resulting in innovative financial solutions to scale up renewable energy technologies.