The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has announced its lifetime investment commitments have now reached $10.3 billion.
The government-backed “green bank” has financed around 250 projects since it was established in 2012, with a lifetime transaction value of $36.5 billion.
In the second half of 2021 alone, the CEFC made nearly $1 billion in new investment commitments across 20 transactions and deployed $1.1 billion of capital across the economy.
“Working together with the private sector as Australia’s ‘green bank’, we are proud to report that our investments are making a positive difference right across the economy,” said CEFC CEO Ian Learmonth.
“As a specialist investor, we remain at the forefront of market developments from renewable energy generation to energy storage and cleantech innovation.”
Areas of investment for the CEFC during the latter half of the year included hydrogen and waste recycling, critical electricity infrastructure and grid transformation.
Looking ahead, the CEFC said that it still had considerable headroom for ongoing investment with access to a further $4.6 billion of its original $10 billion in funding allocated by the federal government.
As of the end of 2021, a total of $2.8 billion had also been repaid or returned to the CEFC, mostly from the private sector, which is able to be reinvested.
“These factors mean we have substantial capacity to extend our investment impact beyond our initial $10 billion allocation as we continue to contribute to emissions reduction,” said Mr Learmonth.
“Just as CEFC capital and expertise has helped transform Australia’s renewable energy sector, we must forge into new areas in the years ahead, decarbonising even the hardest sectors of our economy, whether in energy, industry, transport, infrastructure or agriculture.”
Across all of the projects that the CEFC has invested in, total lifetime emissions of 200 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent are forecast to have been abated.
“Despite the strength of these numbers, we must view them in the context of the emissions challenge ahead,” noted Mr Learmonth.
“As we heard at COP26 in Glasgow, we need to act now if we are to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. We recognise this requires the sustained effort of industry, investors, governments and regulators, with CEFC investment continuing to make an important contribution.”
Jon Bragg
Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.
