ASCENT Carbon Day
Access to electricity is essential to create and maintain human capital development, to reduce income inequality, to stop the growing rural-urban divide and to create new economic opportunities. Accelerating energy access progress in the Eastern and Southern Africa (AFE) region is essential to help the region achieve its development goals but also for the world to meet its Sustainable Development Goals and address global challenges including climate change. Yet, less than half of the population (48 percent) in AFE region has access to electricity, a figure that drops precipitously in rural areas (26 percent), and more than two-thirds of all people in the AFE region lack access to clean cooking technologies and fuels. The financing needs to achieve universal access to electricity and clean cooking in the AFE region while supporting decarbonization pathways are huge: an estimated US$100 billion may be required.
The World Bank’s Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation (ASCENT) Program, approved in November 2023 with an overall World Bank (IDA) funding envelope of US$5 billion, is designed to accelerate sustainable and clean energy access to 100 million people in up to 20 countries in AFE and to bring access to clean cooking solution to 20 million people in the region. The ASCENT program aims to mobilize an additional US$10 billion from public and private financing sources, including through carbon markets.
The first wave of the approved ASCENT operations represents IDA financing of US$1.06 billion and includes Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, and Tanzania. It also includes the ASCENT Regional Energy Access Acceleration Platform managed by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the ASCENT Regional Energy Access Financing Platform managed by Trade and Development Bank (TDB). The Burundi ASCENT operation was recently approved by the World Bank Board. The ASCENT program is expected to expand up to 20 countries in the region and establish other regional facilities (e.g., risk mitigation facility and equity facility) over the next seven years.
A key aspect of the program is that it seeks to leverage additional financing through monetization of emission reductions associated with energy access and clean cooking investments by accessing carbon markets. To do so effectively it is important for key stakeholders to develop a common shared understanding of the fundamentals of carbon finance, key elements of the carbon market, potential avenues for monetization, necessary institutional, regulatory frameworks, credible infrastructure requirements and other relevant considerations.
Jointly hosted by the World Bank and COMESA, the ASCENT Carbon Day will be a dedicated, invite-only event that will offer a deep dive into key areas linked to the practical/implementation consideration associated with the creation of high integrity carbon assets associated with energy access and options for their monetization. It will offer participants from ASCENT countries and key stakeholders the opportunity to learn and discuss issues such as carbon market enabling environment, market developments, digitalization, carbon methodologies and other key issues and considerations relevant for operationalizing and delivering carbon assets under the ASCENT program, with insights from private and public sector practitioners as well as other market players active in the area.
The session will aim to facilitate discussions and peer-to-peer exchanges between the participants and draw out a roadmap for implementation in the coming year.
