The Arab Petroleum Investments Corp (APICORP), an energy-focused multilateral financial institution, has signed a $75 million agreement with Hartree Partners Power & Gas Co, to establish the first-of-its-kind facility in the MENA region to fund voluntary carbon offsets, which will be used to develop environmentally friendly projects worldwide.
Each carbon offset represents the ownership of one ton of CO2 equivalent, which offsets corresponding emissions by the holder.Â
Khalid Ali Al-Ruwaigh, CEO of APICORP, said, “This Murabaha facility was created as part of our commitment to provide innovative financial solutions to enable a balanced energy transition, as well as support Arab countries’ aspirations to reach net zero carbon emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.”
More than 50 billion tons of greenhouse gases are estimated to be emitted into the atmosphere each year. Robust voluntary carbon markets, where carbon credits are purchased voluntarily, have emerged as a cost-effective asset class enabling governments and corporations to immediately begin decarbonising their footprints in line with the global effort to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Regulators and rating agencies are also increasingly taking interest in climate finance and sustainability reporting disclosures by banks. Â
APICORP’s facility will fund carbon offsets that are registered with the non-profit platform Verra, the largest global registry for nature-based offsets.
