New Trust Fund under CEFPF to Accelerate Artificial Intelligence and Digitalization Technologies for Clean Energy

The ADB and the Government of the United Kingdom, acting through the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, signed an agreement to establish the Artificial Intelligence and Digitalization Innovation Fund (AIDIF) under the CEFPF with an initial contribution of £10 million. The AIDIF will join other clean energy trust funds under the CEFPF: the Clean Energy Fund, the Asian Clean Energy Fund, the Carbon Capture and Storage Fund, and the Canadian Climate Fund for the Private Sector in Asia.  The establishment of the AIDIF will expand CEFPF’s contribution in developing clean energy technologies that will lead to climate change mitigation and wider development benefits in the DMCs by accelerating innovative and promising artificial intelligence and digital technologies towards commercialization and through knowledge-sharing and building of local capacity.AIDIF will support technical assistance and grant components of investments which will support the deployment ICT technologies for energy applications across multiple sectors, including industry, transport, and energy. Technologies may include smart grids, smart devices, artificial intelligence software or hardware, and data access and management tools such as blockchain.