Liberia needs to attract national and international investments in renewable electricity to achieve its 30% by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050 commitments in the NDC. The proposed readiness support aims to establish an investment framework for renewable energy, implement a de-risking mechanism and develop and submit a high-quality Project Concept Note to GCF.

This readiness support will contribute to national climate change strategies, the National Rural Energy Master Plan and the Liberian Agenda for Transformation 2030. The impacts of the readiness support will be evidenced by the subsequent availability of GCF support for a renewable energy project in Liberia. The impacts will also be measurable in 2030 as the share of renewable electricity in the Liberian electrical system that can be attributed to this readiness support.

The beneficiaries of the readiness support will be the Rural and Renewable Energy Agency, Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission, Liberia Electricity Corporation, public and private renewable energy investors and banking and financial institutions. Importantly a significant share of the 79% of the population of Liberia which does not currently have access to electricity will also benefit from electricity access as a result of increased renewable electricity capacity additions coupled with electrification efforts.

Liberia estimates that a total of 100 MW of renewable energy generation (solar, biomass and small hydro) and investments of about $ 242 million will need to be made by independent Power Producers (IPP) to achieve the national climate change and energy targets. Liberia has not yet been successful in attracting private IPP investments to achieve the renewable energy IPP programme because of the absence of the necessary regulatory and policy framework and associated institutional capacity, the lack of an appropriate de-risking mechanism and the absence of a paradigm shifting pipeline development.

The central aim of this readiness support is to put in place the much needed policy, regulatory, and investment frameworks, and procedures to implement the renewable IPP programme and to carry out the necessary steps to develop a transformative project concept note in partnership with an accredited entity. In the absence of the Readiness Proposal, the lack of investment frameworks and high- risk perceptions of renewable energy interventions would constrain renewable IPP investments and challenge Liberia’s pathway towards achieving its NDCs.