BDO Unibank Inc. has renewed its Sustainable Energy Finance (SEF) Program partnership with the International Finance Corp. (IFC), the private-sector arm of the World Bank, as part of its continued efforts to impart to clients the best international practices on clean energy.
Since the bank started the program in 2010 and partnered with IFC, it was able to finance several hydropower plants, biomass-power plants, wind-power projects and energy-efficiency investment projects that contributed to the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions.
This time the renewal of the partnership focuses on further enhancing BDO’s expertise and understanding of solar-power generation and green-building projects. Consequently, this will allow the bank to give the private sector appropriate financing for sustainable-energy investments.
Estimates show that there is a substantial potential market for solar-power generation that BDO can tap. Apart from this, BDO also expects investment requirement for environment-friendly buildings to increase, especially with the passage of the National Green Building Code in June 2015 and its subsequent implementation beginning the first quarter of this year.
“BDO recognizes the importance of partnering with IFC in catalyzing private-sector investment in sustainable-energy development covering emerging markets. With this partnership, BDO will continue to support and promote green financing that will help reduce the adverse effects of climate change,” said BDO Senior Executive Vice President Walter C. Wassmer, who is the bank’s institutional banking head.
Valentino Bagatsing, principal investment officer of IFC, voiced that the business sector has to align its activities with environmental protection aside from just targeting profits. “Good environment makes good business,” he said. “Sustainability is the only way to go.”
On solar-power generation, IFC will provide BDO with technical expertise in assessing the technical and financial viability of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects through offsite support for solar projects. Also, as part of the service agreement, IFC’s global solar expert has conducted a briefing on March 11 on global solar PV trends and creditors’ general guidelines in assessing solar projects.
Moreover, IFC will conduct training sessions on green building, including the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies or EDGE to BDO’s various groups.