Promoting renewable energy investments

Equipping Arab economies with sustainable energy solutions that enable socioeconomic growth, while protecting the climate and ensuring a healthy planet and environment for future generations, is a crucial yet challenging priority for the region.

Through a series of interactive events, which capitalized on the participation of local experts, ESCWA supported the development of a desirable investment framework to facilitate the increased mobilization of financial resources for renewable energy investments. The aim was to identify renewable energy projects in member States and support them in developing business plans and preparing bankable proposals for improved access to financing opportunities. The resulting proposals formed a regional pipeline of renewable energy projects.

Our approach

The project aimed to develop the skills of the public and private sectors at the national level to identify, develop and implement renewable energy investment projects; assist national authorities in introducing regulatory and institutional reforms to support these investment projects; and identify opportunities for financing renewable energy projects in the region.

These activities were developed in cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and were in full concordance with the objectives of the Decade of Sustainable Energy for All and SDGs 7 and 12.

Our partners

Our activities

Based on  project proposals, a number of member States benefited from close technical assistance provided by ESCWA in developing bankable proposals for their projects.

Four case studies were developed to highlight the impact of policy and regulatory reforms on renewable energy project deployment in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

A policy seminar was then held to highlight the importance of institutional frameworks, policy reforms and their implementation instruments in supporting the promotion of renewable energy investments.

A regional workshop was subsequently organized to cover the regulatory, technical and policy requirements for attracting and implementing renewable energy investments. A closing workshop presented business plans from investment project pipelines from ESCWA and UNECE that would be considered for financing.

An online platform for knowledge sharing was established, and its components were integrated in the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Marketplace platform that also includes best practices and lessons learned from other regions on promoting renewable energy markets.