Standard Chartered Plc is on track to mobilize between $10 billion and $12 billion of financing for the renewable energy market over the five years to the end of 2012, a bank official said on Thursday.
“We’re pretty much on runway,” Brad Sterley, director of the bank’s renewable energy and environmental finance team told a clean energy forum in Manila.
In 2007, the bank committed up to $10 billion under the Clinton Global Initiative for renewable and clean energy projects by 2012.
Sterley said the bank, which provides debt, advisory and equity across the sector, was involved in several renewable energy projects in the region, including solar power in South Korea, wind power in China and India and geothermal power in Indonesia.
Standard Chartered has partnered with the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) in providing project financing for renewable energy, and Sterley expects more business opportunities in the region.
“Generally we’re very bullish on Asia,” Sterley told Reuters at the forum, adding the bank was closely watching the regulatory environment in some countries planning a major shift to renewable energy, including the Philippines.
“The Philippines needs to finalize a feed-in tariff program for renewable energy. Otherwise, nothing can happen,” Sterley said.
The ADB, which hosted the forum along with the United States Agency for International Development and World Resources Institute, on Wednesday called on Asian countries to take radical steps to increase energy efficiency and investments in renewable energy to tackle climate change.
Last week, the Philippines launched its green energy roadmap under which it aims to triple its clean-power capacity to account for half of its energy needs within 20 years.
The National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP) projects increasing the Southeast Asian country’s renewable energy capacity to 15,400 MW by 2030 from about 5,400 MW at present, helping cut its dependence on imported oil.
