Special funds

The goal is to bring clean and affordable energy to more than

in Sub-Saharan Africa

Our Special Funds area involves environmental and climate fund assignments from governments and agencies in the Nordics and beyond, with specific mandates.

The new Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa (BGFA) facility was established early 2019 at Sweden’s (Sida’s) request. BGFA offers direct, results-based financial incentives to private energy service companies to encourage them to establish innovative sustainable businesses in challenging markets and accelerate access to affordable and clean off-grid energy at scale for customers in peri-urban and rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The facility has entered the contracting phase for the first funding round launched in 2020 and started two new funding rounds during 2021. The goal of the current funding rounds is to generate up to 1.3 million sustainable off-grid energy subscriptions, bringing clean and affordable energy to more than 6.7 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Read more about the programme on www.nefco.int and www.beyondthegrid.africa

Nefco's two Carbon Funds generated

from projects in 2021

Since 2011, Nefco has managed two funds for purchasing carbon credits (Certified Emission Reductions) through Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, based on the Kyoto Protocol compliance scheme. The last year of operations for the funds was 2021. Both the Nefco Carbon Fund (NeCF), which included Nefco and a number of private and governmental investors, and the Nefco Norwegian Carbon Procurement Facility (NorCaP), with Norway as the sole investor, closed at the end of 2021 as planned.

In 2021, Carbon Fund projects managed by Nefco generated Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) equivalent to 2.09 million tonnes of CO2e emissions. Since their start in the early 2000s, NeCF and NorCaP have altogether generated 29 million CERs from 19 projects in seven different countries and 13 projects in five countries, respectively. Together with the Baltic Testing Ground Facility (TGF), which closed in 2013, Nefco's Carbon Funds have generated a total of 31.6 million CERs.

new projects

received BSAP funding in 2021

The goal of the Baltic Sea Action Plan by HELCOM is to restore the ecological status of the Baltic marine environment. Since the establishment of the Baltic Sea Action Plan Fund in 2010, financed by Finland and Sweden, a total of 46 projects have been financed to facilitate and speed up the implementation of the plan. In 2021, fifteen new projects from four countries were selected to receive funding. Most of the projects selected were related to agriculture, recycling of nutrients and wastewater treatment, as well as projects to better understand and reduce hazardous substances from the seabed.

Read more about the fund on www.nefco.int/bsap

Sustainable fish stock management of specific undervalued fish is an effective and ecologically sustainable method of removing nutrients and reducing eutrophication of the Baltic Sea while increasing the supply of climate-friendly food products. Cyprinid fish, such as bream, roach and ide, are found in abundance in the Baltic Sea, but the tradition of eating them has been lost in many countries.

The Baltic Fish project, co-financed by the Baltic Sea Action Plan Fund and implemented between 2019 and 2021, has increased the interest in Cyprinid fish in Sweden and Åland and combined the removal of nutrients from the sea with local food production.

The fishing activities carried out during the project created a number of employment opportunities, removed about 400 kg of phosphorus from the Baltic Sea and developed low carbon footprint products, such as bream burgers, minced bream and fish patties.  

Full story: Sustainable fish products from the Baltic Sea