The New Development Bank’s (NDB’s) first set of loans, totalling $811-million, to be disbursed in tranches, was allocated to supporting the development of 2 370 MW of renewable-energy capacity across emerging economies.
The NDB, which was formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) to support infrastructure and sustainable development initiatives in emerging economies, approved the appraised projects in what NDB president Kundapur Kamath said was an important milestone for the newly established bank.
“With this, we embark on a journey to provide speedy assistance to projects across developing nations. We are pleased that the projects deal with green and renewable energy and hope they will act as catalysts for development in our member States,” he said.
It was estimated that the projects would collectively provide additional generation capacity of 2 370 MW of clean energy and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by nearly four-million tonnes a year.
The Brics countries had contributed an initial combined $1-billion in capital to the NDB.