The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has recruited renewable energy finance specialist Dana Younger as a senior advisor to help its efforts to accelerate investment in wind power, particularly in emerging markets.
Younger has been involved in wind and solar project finance, corporate finance, and mobilisation of private equity financing in his previous role as chief renewable energy specialist for the global power team within the global infrastructure and natural resources department of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank.
According to GWEC he will help the organisation develop stronger relationships with leading financial institutions and institutional investors that are most active in financing renewable energy.
GWEC chief executive Ben Backwell said: “Dana Younger brings an immense wealth of expertise in renewable energy financing to the GWEC team, which we will use to strengthen our advocacy and advisory work with governments and policy makers, international institutions and investors.”
Backwell added: “In order to limit the impact of climate change and meet the 1.5°C goal, renewable energy investments must increase threefold over the coming years. Having someone of Dana’s calibre and experience to support GWEC’s work will be invaluable as we seek to meet this challenge”.
Younger has helped IFC build a portfolio of more than $5bn in clean energy investments over the last two decades with an emphasis on building greenfield renewable energy projects in emerging market countries.
He has been involved with teams providing debt and equity finance on a project and corporate basis.
As well as helping launch IFC’s carbon finance activities and the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund, Younger has also helped the IFC to mobilise financing for over 3GW of wind projects in developing countries including China, India, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Turkey, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Jordan, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.
“The world faces a tremendous challenge in mobilising sufficient capital to address the climate crisis and dramatically scale up investment and deployment of proven renewable energy technologies such as wind energy,” said Younger.
“GWEC has a vital role to play in expanding the flow of capital to the global wind energy community. I look forward to the opportunity to work closely with GWEC’s Board of Directors and senior management to expand the organization’s footprint with the global finance community,” he added.