Six South Asian countries, including Nepal, will benefit from $21.5 million (€18 million) in new funding from the European Union (EU), which will help accelerate climate-smart, inclusive infrastructure investments in the South Asian region.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will implement the project under the Accelerating Climate-Smart and Inclusive Infrastructure in South Asia (ACSIIS) program. ACSIIS is a five-year program (2021-2026) designed to help stimulate investment in energy, water, waste management, transportation, logistics and green buildings, while driving $850 million in private sector investment in the region .

According to the International Finance Corporation, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on infrastructure investment has been widespread and severe. Privately-involved infrastructure investment commitments in 2020 fell sharply by 52% from 2019 levels. IFC estimates that the full achievement of the national targets set out in the Paris Agreement by 2030 in South Asian countries could unlock more than $3 trillion in climate-smart investment opportunities.

The plan will also support the development of climate-smart investments in agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, health and education, while focusing on key themes such as cities, gender and green finance. The latest move builds on IFC's previous partnership with the European Union to support Nepal's eco-city initiative and other initiatives in the region.

According to IFC, through ACSIIS, it will support early-stage market development to address key market-wide constraints and provide project-level technical advice to structure sustainable infrastructure investments in target countries. The programme will also support capacity building in the private and government sectors to improve their ability to design, build and implement sustainable infrastructure projects. Some of these components are part of IFC's Upstream Strategy, which aims to create markets in the most challenging environments to lay the foundation for future investment projects. Editor / Xu Shengpeng