UNHCR has announced a $23.7 million commitment from the IKEA Foundation to partner with the UN refugee agency’s Green Financing Facility (GFF) to accelerate the transition of UNHCR offices to solar energy.

As a GFF partner, the foundation will help the agency reduce its reliance on costly, polluting diesel generators in hundreds of remote, off-grid locations, including sites in Kenya and Uganda. To that end, the initiative will work to accelerate private-sector investments to solarize UNHCR’s operations in high-risk and unpredictable settings and reduce carbon emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030.

Launched in 2019, GFF aims to provide solutions that unblock longstanding challenges around limited annual budgets, the inability to enter into long-term contracts, and limitations on managing and operating solar infrastructure. The foundation joins the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), which provided $4 million in 2019 and $8 million in 2020, respectively, to the GFF.

“By investing in the GFF we hope to demonstrate how reducing carbon emissions can help vital agencies like UNHCR not only lower their carbon emissions but become more effective and direct more of their money toward the people they serve,” said IKEA Foundation CEO Per Heggenes. “We are delighted to announce this funding and call on other organizations to join us and help make UNHCR’s ambitious greening goals a reality.” 

(Photo credit: Getty Images/nattrass)