Yellen announced the first $1 billion Treasury loan for the Multilateral Clean Technology Fund

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday announced a $950 million loan to the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) to help developing countries accelerate their transition from coal to cleaner energy.

The first contribution by the U.S. Treasury Department is fulfilling the U.S. pledge to join the other G7 countries at the 2021 Group of Seven summit, the Treasury Department said.

Alexia Ladordeau, assistant secretary for international trade at the Treasury, said the loan is a “strong advance” on President Joe Biden’s pledge to spend $11 billion on climate finance, and said the loan reflects US support for emerging markets. Transition from fossil fuels.

The loan will be used to support US climate commitments, including Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs), and finance CTF projects developed by multilateral development banks in consultation with South Africa, Indonesia, India and the Philippines to accelerate the transition away from coal. withdraw

The U.S. money can fund a variety of support programs to install new renewable energy equipment, retire old coal plants, and promote new investment and employment in communities affected by the energy transition, the Treasury Department said.

Yellen will announce the loan in a speech at the Center for Global Development ahead of the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund next week.

South Africa, India, Indonesia and the Philippines became the first beneficiaries of the ACT (Accelerated Coal Transition) program launched by the CTF last year.

All four countries account for 15% of global emissions from coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Rapidly reducing their emissions will contribute to global efforts to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2050.

The CTF is one of two multi-donor trust funds set up under the Climate Investment Fund (CIF), launched in 2008 by the world’s largest economies to help poor countries rapidly transition to a low-carbon economy.

“With this new contribution, the United States is helping to create new jobs and new sustainable markets while reducing emissions, thereby protecting our shared climate future,” CIF CEO Mafalda Duarte said in a statement. )