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Impact evaluation

AFD measures the impact of the projects it finances in the framework of its commitments to combat climate change. To achieve this, it has adopted a series of simplified tools to analyze the greenhouse gas emissions caused by development projects. The aim is to allow the managers of projects financed by AFD to analyze their carbon content and consequently get a better understanding of projects by quantifying their greenhouse gas emissions.

- The first tool allows the people that prepare development projects to quantify the order of magnitude of project emissions during the investment and operating phases. For most projects the calculation may be made using a few basic datas (between 5 and 10) entered in drop-down menus to make the work easier. A user guide (French only) is available for this Excel spreadsheet along with an adapted database. This assessment gives an initial order of magnitude of project CO2 emissions and makes it possible to continue the analysis by looking at possibilities, where relevant, to reduce these emissions (by comparing the emissions avoided by the project with a reference scenario as if there had been no project).

This tool has been developed by Jean-Marc Jancovici who simplified the ADEME (French Environment and Energy Management Agency) carbon balance in order to allow an initial assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from projects. The calculations will consequently not be as accurate as those obtained using the ADEME carbon balance which can be consulted on the agency’s website.

- Moreover, AFD has developed a simplified tool from the Excel file described above that makes it possible to estimate the carbon footprint of projects in a limited number of sectors, i.e. renewable energies, energy efficiency and waste. The aim is to transfer this tool to the financial partners with whom AFD works in the framework of “climate” lines of credit. These partner banks can consequently measure the emissions avoided by the projects developed via AFD financing. They can therefore get a better understanding of the impacts of their projects and can examine the possibility of selling carbon credits if these impacts are considerable. The Excel file (in English only) comes with a user guide.

AFD wishes to develop these tools and prepare new versions that will also be disseminated and consequently welcomes any observations and recommendations which can be sent to: climat@afd.fr.

Finally, any use made of the datas from this software is the sole responsibility of the user. AFD has made every effort to ensure that the software may be used in complete safety and shall in no way be held responsible for any possible damage to the user’s computer system.