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>Posted by Jeffrey Riecke
A few weeks ago I wrote a post highlighting microfinance as a tool for achieving environmental sustainability and in it I looked at CFI’s now-completed Energy Links project. During its three years of operations, Energy Links explored, and ultimately demonstrated, how MFIs can help to significantly expand the micro-energy industry. With Energy Links finished, I wondered, what is the microfinance community doing now to support sustainable energy?
Not even a day after writing my Energy Links post a colleague introduced me to MicroEnergy Credits (MEC), an organization that is earning large-scale success in supporting MFI clean energy lending. Since it was founded in 2007, MEC estimates that it has helped provide clean energy to over 100,000 households across several countries.
> Posted by Holly Padgett
After my latest blog post concerning microfinance and environmental sustainability, I was excited to read about the recent decision by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a US government development finance institution, to support clean energy initiatives around the world.
OPIC’s support came in the form of a $10 million loan to MicroEnergy Credits (MEC). With the loan, MEC will assist microfinance institutions in providing microloans to individuals for the purchase of clean energy products (e.g. solar lighting).
In a recent blog post, MEC described some of the positive aspects of these clean energy initiatives:
“Individuals who receive microloans to purchase clean energy not only benefit the planet; they benefit from improved health due to reduced indoor air pollution and increased savings from reduced expenditure on traditional fuels.”
MicroEnergy Credits primarily works to connect MFIs with carbon markets to offset initial costs of clean energy microloans. However, the organization also has a widespread impact on the microfinance industry as a whole. MEC founder and CEO, April Allderdice, recently worked with CFI on the Energy Links project and ‘Microfinance and Energy Poverty’ publication, a report on alleviating energy poverty. Read the rest of this entry »
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