UNDP and TRINE partner to scale-up private investment in high-impact energy projects

April 26, 2018

New York, 26 April- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and impact investment platform TRINE announced their first ever partnership in the off-grid solar industry. The primary objective of this partnership is to contribute towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7- affordable and clean energy, and improve the quality of life in rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa through innovative financing.

Furthermore, UNDP and TRINE are jointly setting-up a new initiative to scale-up private investment in high-impact energy access projects with an initial focus on Kenya, expanding later to Rwanda, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia. UNDP will assess and monitor the impacts of projects using UNDP’s Climate Action Impact Tool which offers investors to quantify and track the social and environmental impacts of their investments to make informed decisions.

“We are excited to see a strong commitment from the private sector to invest in initiatives in rural Kenya that will strengthen communities, create jobs and empower women, and at the same time contribute to the country’s climate change targets under the Paris Agreement. The Climate Action Impact Tool will help investors to make informed decisions when selecting projects with highest sustainable development impacts, thereby advancing development and accelerating the implementation of the SDGs,” said Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.

The initiative is expected to unlock investments of 6 Million EUR in off-grid solar energy by the end of 2018 and give 300,000 people access to clean and affordable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa whilst mitigating approximate 84,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

“We are dedicated to giving 66 million people access to clean energy before the end of 2022. One of the barriers in the sector is trust and to prove that the impact created is real and long-lasting. By partnering up with UNDP and use UNDP’s climate action impact tool, we will take a step forward in increasing trust in the sector and make the impact more tangible, which serves our goal of accelerating sustainable investments,” said Sam Manaberi, CEO, TRINE.

UNDP and TRINE believe the private sector can play a key role in providing the needed finance to increase energy access. There is a growing interest from the private sector regarding ways to effectively verify, monitor and report sustainable development impacts of these private sector activities and investments. The partnership is based on the belief that access to verifiable data on sustainable development impacts should result in enhanced trust in investees and investment platforms, while also allowing investors to make better informed investment decisions.

Together with one of the leading companies in the off-grid solar energy sector, BBOXX, who is one of the investees on the platform, UNDP’s Climate Action Impact Tool will be piloted on their Kenya operations.

Access to energy is at the heart of most critical social, economic and environmental challenges we face today, with approximately 1.1 billion people in the world without access to electricity (53% of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa). TRINE is solving this issue by financing off-grid solar solutions that replace expensive fossil fuels in rural Africa.

"The Climate Action Impact Tool visualizes the contribution of private sector-led climate actions to the Kenya’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) target. The information on climate finance, mitigation, adaptation and socioeconomic well-being of the beneficiaries will therefore feed into the country’s Monitoring, Reporting and Verification on the NDC and SDG implementation progress,” said Dr. Harun M. Warui, National Project Manager from the Low Emission and Climate Resilient Development (LECRD) Project, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in Kenya.

For media queries:

UNDP- Sangita Khadka, Communications Specialist, UNDP Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, New York, email: sangita.khadka@undp.org, Tel: +1 212 906 5043

TRINE- Hanna Lindquist, Communications and Growth Manager, Nairobi, Kenya email: hanna@jointrine.com, Tel: +254 720 491 693