AFD Projects to Save 10.5 million tons of CO2 per Year
published on 21 November 2019
Year after year, Agence Française de Développement has been dedicating more and more resources to reducing greenhouse gas emissions around the world.
It is expected that the equivalent of 10.5 million metric tons of CO2 will be saved each year, based on the increasingly clean projects financed by AFD in 2018. In short, the projects financed by AFD are emitting less carbon.
This is in line with AFD’s mission of aligning finance and development with clean environmental policy and the fight against climate change.
Is 10.5 million metric tons of CO2 significant?
It is indeed. It amounts to an entire year’s worth of greenhouse gas emissions from a small country such as Luxembourg or Mauritania.
The figure was calculated using tools approved by the International Financial Institution Framework for a Harmonized Approach to Greenhouse Gas, a widely recognized measure used by international financial institutions.
AFD arrived at the figure after examining the impact of projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and in the French Overseas Territories. In Boulouparis, New Caledonia, for instance, the construction of a new photovoltaic plant with 15 MWp (megawatt-peak) will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 22,000 metric tons of CO2eq (equivalent) per year.
In Cacao, French Guiana, a biomass plant* will reduce the use of diesel, and thus the release of 28,000 metric tons of CO2eq into the atmosphere each year. (* Linked articles above are in French.)
With AFD’s commitment to making its activities 100% compatible with the Paris Agreement, the amount of carbon emitted from AFD-funded projects is likely to continue to fall.
In 2018, AFD dedicated €4.8 billion to support 158 projects relating to climate change, €3 billion of which went to mitigating climate change and €1.4 billion went to helping societies adapt to its consequences.
