MASERU, 1 December 2022 - The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Government of Lesotho, represented by the Ministry of Natural Resources, have officially launched the Green Climate Fund (GCF)-supported project "Enhancing Lesotho’s private sector readiness for a clean energy transition".

Lesotho’s private sector currently has limited capacity to innovate, develop and deploy home-grown technology and business solutions. Adding to the challenge is the current policy and legal framework, which does not adequately incentivize private sector investments in the cleantech sector.

To address these challenges, UNIDO and the Government of Lesotho are partnering with the GCF Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme to enhance the readiness of Lesotho’s private sector to develop, commercialize and invest in climate and clean energy solutions. This initiative is aimed at supporting Lesotho to reach its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) targets.

During his opening remarks, HE Mohlomi Moleko, Minister of Natural Resources of Lesotho, highlighted the activities and impact of the project emphasizing the transformation of cleantech solutions into profitable business models that lead to higher income and more stable jobs in the country. “The project will build on the ongoing initiatives most of which focus more on building a conducive policy environment for energy investments, supporting policy and strategy implementation and increasing awareness for investment in the energy sector. These will be achieved by providing targeted services that will capacitate the private sector to absorb and leverage climate finance through home-grown solutions and business models.”

Highlighting the role of the private sector in supporting cleantech solutions, Olga Rataj, Programme Manager of the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) of UNIDO, “[UNIDO] believes that the private sector’s capacity to provide and invest in technology solutions on a commercial basis will be a catalytic factor in achieving Lesotho’s climate and clean energy goals”.

"The project will benefit from UNIDO’s extensive experience in working with the private sector to enhance their competitiveness to respond to and participate in climate action and energy transition, and one such example is UNIDO’s GCIP,” added Olga Rataj. “The knowledge and resources accumulated through the GCIP implementation will be leveraged to support Lesotho. We consider this Readiness Support as part of the wider GCIP network, and this Project will benefit from synergies with the other GCIP partner countries in the region, especially South Africa, Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal."

For further information, please contact:

Sunyoung Suh, Project Coordinator
Climate Technologies Innovation Unit, UNIDO
email

Patricia Marorisang Makututsa, National Technical Expert and Project Coordinator
Climate Technologies Innovation Unit, UNIDO
email