FONERWA highlights Major achievements in the past Eight years

The Government of Rwanda has made efforts to protect the environment, combat climate change and address its health impacts.

By reducing the effects of air pollution, Rwanda became the first African country to submit to the United Nations air conservation targets, where it is committed to reducing these air polution by 38% by 2030.

Some of the strategies that will help it achieve this include improving energy efficiency, efficient industrial use, waste management, transportation and agriculture and all of these will reduce air pollutions totalling 4.6 million tons.

In addition, the establishment of the Rwanda Green Fund (FONERWA) has been launched in the context of environmental protection and climate change mitigation.

The fund raises financial resources to help the country implement environmental policies and strategies that lead to sustainable development and fight climate change, find and manage resources that are used to promote environmental protection and conservation.

FONERWA CEO Teddy Mugabo Mpinganzima told a local news website IGIHE that for the past nine years the fund has been particularly supportive of Rwanda’s environmental protection program.

“In fact, there is a significant contribution made by FONERWA to the country in support of the program and its commitment to building a sustainable and environmentally friendly economy that is able to cope with climate change and its impact,” she said.

“So far, we have been able to raise $ 188 million in funding, amounting to Frw 186 billion. All of this money has been instrumental in supporting more than 40 different projects that have been implemented by public, private and non-governmental organizations.”

Over the past nine years FONERWA has sponsored 44 different projects.

But she says, “In terms of resources, those projects cost Rwf 35,776,639,729.”

These projects are located in different parts of the country and have also contributed to helping to protect the environment and combat climate change.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) contributed to the development of E-waste management policies and regulations for waste management in Rwanda and the construction of a waste processing plant in Bugesera District.

FONERWA also assisted in the construction of the Rweru Model Village which was also funded on the expansion of model village programs in Rwanda.

The fund has also raised money for various projects and capacity building in the sector and policy towards environmental protection and tackling climate change and its impact.

Teddy Mugabo said: “One example is a project being implemented in Gicumbi District with the support of the United Nations Green Climate Fund, which has invested more than $ 32 million in climate change.”

This is in addition to major sponsored projects including the launch of electric motorcycles that will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which could have an impact on human health, animals, crops and the economy as a whole.

“In partnership with AMPERSAND, we have developed a motorcycle that uses electricity from electricity,” she said.

Some of these motorcycles known as electric motorcycles (E-motos) are still on the move in Kigali.

“So, the goal is to show people that we can use motorcycles that are not contributing to air pollution, so we can build a sustainable economy that is responsive to climate change and its impact. “

In 2018, FONERWA received an award from the United Nations for outstanding achievements in supporting projects to combat climate change and its impact.

The fund says the award is in support of the Rwandan government’s efforts in the international arena and comes under the auspices of the United Nations.

The following are other recorded returns on Investment

• 21,964 hectares of land against soil erosion
• 112,295 people supported to cope with the effects of climate change
• 73,651 households with improved access to off-grid clean energy
• 42,838 hectares of forests and agro-forest coverage
• 93,604 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to emissions avoided

27,889 hectares of watershed and water bodies protected

• The Government of Rwanda is committed to taking urgent action to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. As a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the country seeks to contribute to the ambitious goal of limiting temperature rise to 2^oC with efforts to reach 1.5^oC agreed under the Paris Agreement. The Nationally determined contributions (NDC) aim at reducing 38% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to business as usual (BAU) in Rwanda by 2030. In order to achieve the NDC targets over the next 10 years, the combined funding requirement is estimated at USD 11Billion.
• As the national environment and climate financing Fund, the Rwanda Green Fund-FONERWA will continue to play a vital role towards the country’s resource mobilization efforts in collaboration with Government counterparts.
• To contribute to the Climate actions plan (NDC) of Rwanda, a resource mobilization Strategy was developed and will mainly focus on different resource mobilization areas that have potential to attract more investments domestically and internationally.
• Furthermore, FONERWA and its partners (such as the Development Bank of Rwanda) are working on diversifying financial instruments for incremental resources mobilization. For instance, the ongoing creation of the Rwanda Green Investment facility (RGIF) among others.
• RGIF is being designed using the “green bank” model with the main objectives:

1. i) To address local market gaps and crowd in private finance using financial tools;
2. ii) To strengthen Rwanda’s ownership of climate finance by empowering the country to better access international finance (non-grant) resources;

iii) To work in partnership with the local banks to build their green finance capacity through innovation, risk transfer and deal arrangement.

• The RGIF mandate is to catalyze private investments in Rwanda, with a unique and specific focus on blended finance by providing financial instruments (debt, credit enhancements e.g. sub-debt, tenor extension and collateral support) to projects that are commercially viable – but not yet bankable – in the green sector.