Istanbul to host energy efficiency financing forum

Istanbul will host a forum on energy efficiency financing that is sponsored by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Sept. 16-17.

The forum, entitled "Building a Global Energy Efficiency Financing Alliance," will be held in partnership with the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative.

"The forum will be a platform for commercial banks, including international, national, regional and microfinance institutions, to share knowledge and experience about successful business strategies for developing and marketing energy efficiency finance products," the EBRD said in a statement on Sept. 11. 

It is expected that the forum will attract participants from 50 commercial banks.

Josue Tanaka, managing director for Energy Efficiency and Climate Change at the EBRD, said in the statement: "EBRD experience has proven that continued investment in energy efficiency makes both an important contribution toward the global climate challenge as well as clear business and economic sense."

"The EBRD has invested 13 billion euros [$14.7 billion] in energy efficiency over the past 10 years, encouraging third-party investment for projects worth a total of 84 billion euros [$94.4 billion] and estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 60 million CO2 tons per year," added the statement.