Estimating mobilized private climate finance for developing countries - A Norwegian pilot study

The point of departure for this study is the available data in Norway on climate finance for developing countries. The bottleneck in tracking mobilized private climate finance is availability and quality of data. The main challenge is that Norwegian public institutions sourcing public support for climate finance have not yet implemented sufficient systems for measurement, reporting and verification of mobilized private climate finance. In addition, climate finance tracking is constrained by methodological difficulties and lacking international standard definitions and methods. Despite these limitations, we have estimated that Norwegian public climate finance support to developing countries via bilateral and multi-bilateral support amounted to 1,019 MUSD in 2014, split into bilateral flows at 578 MUSD and multi-bilateral flows at 441 MUSD. The main public institutions sourcing this money, ranked according to the size of their money flows, are: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) - embassies, Norad, MFA, KLD, and Norfund. We examined public support for projects summing up to 692 MUSD, which we could link to an estimated 202 MUSD of mobilized private co-finance. Based on our analysis, Norfund is the primary institution that has mobilized private climate finance. These climate finance flows are likely to be low estimates. In addition, Norway provided another 123 MUSD as climate-related core support to multilateral organizations. Although a number of uncertainties are attached to the data, they cover the largest flows and most available project data. One learning from this process is not to aim for a “perfect” standardized and complete tracking system, but for an international tracking standard that is simple and transparent, and with built-in flexibility to handle different contexts in terms of actors and sources at international and national levels

Non-Injectivity of Infinite Interval Exchange Transformations and Generalized Thue-Morse Sequences

In this paper we study the non-injectivity arising in infinite interval exchange transformations. In particular, we build and analyze an infinite family of infinite interval exchanges semi-conjugated to generalized Thue-Morse subshifts, whose non-injectivity occurs at a characterizable finite set of points.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Estimating mobilized private climate finance for developing countries - A Norwegian pilot study

The point of departure for this study is the available data in Norway on climate finance for developing countries. The bottleneck in tracking mobilized private climate finance is availability and quality of data. The main challenge is that Norwegian public institutions sourcing public support for climate finance have not yet implemented sufficient systems for measurement, reporting and verification of mobilized private climate finance. In addition, climate finance tracking is constrained by methodological difficulties and lacking international standard definitions and methods. Despite these limitations, we have estimated that Norwegian public climate finance support to developing countries via bilateral and multi-bilateral support amounted to 1,019 MUSD in 2014, split into bilateral flows at 578 MUSD and multi-bilateral flows at 441 MUSD. The main public institutions sourcing this money, ranked according to the size of their money flows, are: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) - embassies, Norad, MFA, KLD, and Norfund. We examined public support for projects summing up to 692 MUSD, which we could link to an estimated 202 MUSD of mobilized private co-finance. Based on our analysis, Norfund is the primary institution that has mobilized private climate finance. These climate finance flows are likely to be low estimates. In addition, Norway provided another 123 MUSD as climate-related core support to multilateral organizations. Although a number of uncertainties are attached to the data, they cover the largest flows and most available project data. One learning from this process is not to aim for a “perfect” standardized and complete tracking system, but for an international tracking standard that is simple and transparent, and with built-in flexibility to handle different contexts in terms of actors and sources at international and national levels

Instruments to incentivize private climate finance for developing countries

Multiple financial instruments are available to de-risk or reduce costs related to climate mitigation measures and projects in developing countries. The financial instruments can be divided into the categories: revenue support, credit enhancement, direct investments, and insurance. More of these instruments are suited for de-risking than for cost reduction, and especially for reducing market and commercial risks. In terms of cost reduction, the majority of instruments affect transaction costs or the rate of return. Not all financial instruments are suited for all situations. Assessing financial instruments with the help of leverage ratio (amount of private finance raised per unit of public finance spent), scaling-up potential, and reliability, we find that the most suitable or promising instruments are significantly dependent on the context, foremost the ‘climate’ for investments in a country and the sectors invested in. The suitability of financial instruments is guided by the mandate of the agency extending climate finance, the specific goals pursued, and the barriers faced when trying to fulfill these goals. The case studies show that financial instruments often are used in combination to make a transaction possible. We present a procedure for assessing climate finance instruments, consisting of evaluation of barriers that have been observed in specific cases and possible solutions that should be considered, as well as some further checkpoints. This procedure should be helpful for public agencies responsible for designing support, financing schemes and climate-related projects for developing countries

Solar Energy: Incentives to Promote PV in EU27

The growth in the use of renewable energies in the EU has been remarkable. Among these energies is PV. The average annual growth rate for the EU-27 countries in installed PV capacity in the period 2005-2012 was 41.2%. While the installed capacity of PV has reached almost 82 % of National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) targets for the EU-27 countries for 2020, it is still far from being used at its full potential. Over recent years, several measures have been adopted in the EU to enhance and promote PV. This paper undertakes a complete review of the state of PV power in Europe and the measures taken to date to promote it in EU-27. 25 countries have adopted measures to promote PV. The most widespread measure to promote PV use is Feed- in Tariffs. Tariffs are normally adjusted, in a decreasing manner, annually. Nevertheless, currently, seven countries have decided to accelerate this decrease rate in view of cost reduction of the installations and of higher efficiencies. The second instrument used to promote PV in the EU-27 countries is the concession of subsidies. Nevertheless, subsidies have the disadvantage of being closely linked to budgetary resources and therefore to budgetary constraints. In most EU countries, subsidies for renewable energy for PV are being lowered. Twelve EU-27 countries adopted tax measures. Low-interest loans and green certificate systems were only sparingly used

A Review of Solar EnergyI Markets, Economics and Policies

Solar energy has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years due to both technological improvements resulting in cost reductions and government policies supportive of renewable energy development and utilization. This study analyzes the technical, economic and policy aspects of solar energy development and deployment. While the cost of solar energy has declined rapidly in the recent past, it still remains much higher than the cost of conventional energy technologies. Like other renewable energy technologies, solar energy benefits from fiscal and regulatory incentives and mandates, including tax credits and exemptions, feed-in-tariff, preferential interest rates, renewable portfolio standards and voluntary green power programs in many countries. Potential expansion of carbon credit markets also would provide additional incentives to solar energy deployment; however, the scale of incentives provided by the existing carbon market instruments, such as the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, is limited. Despite the huge technical potential, development and large-scale, market-driven deployment of solar energy technologies world-wide still has to overcome a number of technical and financial barriers. Unless these barriers are overcome, maintaining and increasing electricity supplies from solar energy will require continuation of potentially costly policy supports

The Impact of Wind Power Support Schemes on Technology Choices

Germany changed renewable remuneration for wind power from a fixed Feed-In Tariff (FIT) to a floating Market Premium Scheme (MPS) in 2012. One aim of this adjustment was to better align the supply of generated wind electricity with the demand for it, e.g. through more system-friendly wind turbine technology choices. In energy systems with a high share of variable renewable energies, such turbines produce a higher share of their production at lower wind speeds and thus can reduce the need for alternative flexibility options like back-up capacity, storage, grid extensions and demand side measures. However, based on a wind power investment model, I show that the MPS fails to convey strong enough incentives to project developers to significantly alter their investment decisions as long as these base their investments on current electricity market price profiles and are limited by their access to risk-averse project finance. One reform proposal to support the installation of system-friendly turbines is a change in the production volume-based benchmark approach which plays an integral part in both the fixed FIT and the MPS. The investment model indicates that such a revised policy can incentivize the deployment of moderately more system-friendly wind power technologies at some locations. An alternative option is to shift to a production value-based benchmark approach. It directly reflects the future additional market value of system-friendly turbines in today's remuneration structure. Thus, this approach sets incentives also for investors without perfect foresight - or with financing constraints - to deploy more systemfriendly turbines that meet the requirements of power systems with increasing shares of wind power

Rethinking how to support intermittent renewables

Intermittent renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power, typically remain more expensive than conventional power sources. As a consequence, few intermittent power projects would have been deployed if speci c policy instruments had not been implemented. Existing policy instruments facilitating the deployment of intermittent renewable energy technologies include the feed-in tari , the feed-in premium and the quota system. Based on a numerical analysis, it is shown that these speci c policy instruments do not necessarily facilitate the deployment of valuable energy sources because they ignore the cost of inter- mittency. A valuable intermittent energy source is de ned here as a source of energy which requires little nancial support and which limits the need for capacity payments in order to ensure the security of supply. Based on insights from the numerical analysis, a new policy instrument is suggested: a multiplicative premium. This type of policy instrument would increase the likelihood that valuable intermittent energy assets are deployed in priority