Kiev, Ukraine, October 17, 2012
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is partnering with the western Ukraine city of Lviv to promote energy-efficient improvements in the residential sector, helping the country reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change.
IFC’s Residential Energy Efficiency Advisory Project is working with Lviv’s center for homeowner associations to help residents with legal and financing issues around energy-efficient renovations in multifamily houses. IFC will help with energy audits, including in the historical center where many medieval buildings are being renovated. Replacing outdated and inefficient heating equipment, among other improvements, is expected to help the city cut its CO2 emissions by 70,000 tons per year, equivalent to the annual emissions of around 14,000 passenger cars.
“The City of Lviv is leading the country in its efforts to revamp the old and inefficient residential sector,” said Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy. “IFC will help us get to the next level in our reforms as we work to build modern housing for our people. We hope it will improve people’s everyday lives and result in improved access to finance for residents of the multi-storied buildings.”
This initiative falls within a broader effort by the Residential Energy Efficiency project to enable reforms in the residential sector. Housing consumes 25 percent of the electricity and 40 percent of the heat-energy resources in Ukraine. IFC works with the government, banks, and homeowner associations to unlock bank lending for residential energy-efficiency projects across the country.
“Energy efficient improvements are a cross-cutting theme for our work in Ukraine,” said Elena Voloshina, IFC’s head of operations in Ukraine. “IFC is offering both investment and advisory products to help speed up the reforms and make the country more energy efficient. Our joint project with Lviv, a city of about 700,000 inhabitants, will help raise awareness on the economic benefits of energy-efficient renovation in the residential sector.”
IFC launched its Ukraine Residential Energy Efficiency Project in 2010, implementing it in partnership with Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, SECO. The project will help Ukraine to achieve its targets to reduce energy intensity by 20 percent by 2015, and by 50 percent by 2030.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, mobilizing capital in international financial markets, and providing advisory services to businesses and governments. In FY12, our investments reached an all-time high of more than $20 billion, leveraging the power of the private sector to create jobs, spark innovation, and tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
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