DUBAI, UAE -- The transformative impact of two solar farm projects of Filipino-led Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation (CREC) had clinched global spotlight as it was catapulted to be among the world’s first bestowed with FAST-Infra Sustainability Infrastructure (FISI) Label, which has been showcased at the ongoing COP28 Climate Change Summit here.

The FAST-Infra Label is a globally applicable framework that recognizes top-tier infrastructure assets that can successfully marry innovation and sustainability within the ecosystem of project developments – and that had been successfully demonstrated in the 162-megawatt peak (MWp) Bolbok 1 and 2 solar farm ventures of Citicore in Tuy, Batangas.

In an interview, Nathalie Gaullier, global programme manager for the FAST-Infra Label Secretariat of Switzerland-headquartered Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation, noted that the Citicore solar projects had been chosen after passing the rigorous criteria set by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and other initiators of the framework which are anchored on four dimensions: environmental, social, governance as well as resilience and adaptation.

She explained that within the FAST-Infra Label selection paradigm, there are 14 criteria that candidate-projects would have to wade through in the entire chain of the selection process – and these include environmental and social impact assessment, stakeholder engagement, as well as social management system.

“All of these are actually required by the IFC, and checking on these 14 criteria would just be the first step, the project also needs to show positive contribution aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals,” she stressed.

Following that phase, Gaullier qualified that the candidate-projects will similarly go through comprehensive verification system that shall be carried out by a third-party entity.

Auspiciously, in the first round of FAST-Infra Label certification, the Citicore solar farm developments made it to the top-tier hierarchy of projects deserving of recognition in the global stage of energy revolution. The other projects accorded with FAST-Infra Label are those from India, Vietnam and Brazil.

During a high-level discussion at a COP28 side event, in which he joined other speakers from Macquarie Asset Management, Pentagreen Capital and Global Infrastructure Facility (GIF), Citicore President and CEO Oliver Tan stipulated that “there is an increasing global demand for sustainable infrastructure, but this must not be just as a way of promoting green projects. The label should not be merely a statement, but really about applying sustainability in our day-to-day.”

In the realm of renewable energy (RE) investments in the Philippines, in particular, Citicore is largely hailed as a ‘nexus navigator’ by advancing its Agro-Solar initiative as amalgamated component of the company’s solar farm installations –and it has been advancing this trailblazing movement not just to triumph over the food-versus-energy conundrum and in helping abate climate change risks, but to create synergetic value proposition to its host communities by providing them added income opportunities.

For the Bolbok 1 and 2 solar projects, in particular, it was calculated that the scale of avoided carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would top 160,000 tonnes.

In a separate interview, Pentagreen Capital Chief Executive Officer Marat Zapparov conveyed that in the $100 mezzanine debt facility they have recently extended to Citicore’s portfolio of projects, that was done in a record timeframe of just 3.5 months because of the track record and potential that the company has already shown in its project-developments. Pentagreen Capital is jointly owned by Singapore-based Temasek Holdings and HSBC.

“We want to support companies and developers that do projects in the right way – and that means not just focus on the specific narrow project, but on the broader impact of that project and looking after that impact. That’s what sustainability really is, so these are the other kinds of companies that we would want to support because that’s very, very important for us,” he stated.

Zapparov highlighted “Citicore gave us a lot of comfort that it is the right company for us because we look at the same things together, it is a company that is used to working with financiers - local or international; and it is also used to working with the environmental and social governance issues that are important to us.”

He added “we select our target-companies on the basis of high-level considerations. The experience and professionalism of the company is very, very important because then we can speak the same language… we look for a company that has the right policies and processes in-house in order to deliver to us what we need.