In 2015, the Bank signed a US$ 110 million sovereign-guaranteed loan to BT, the Tajik power utility, to finance the Tajik part of the high-voltage transmission infrastructure for the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000), which will enable summer electricity export from the hydropower surplus countries of Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic to the electricity-deficient countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The untapped hydropower potential of Central Asia will allow the export of 3,300 to 3,600 GWh to Pakistan alone, where carbon-intensive electricity will be replaced by zero-carbon hydropower leading to more than 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions reductions per year. These carbon emissions are more than 50 per cent of the annual GHG emissions of Tajikistan.
Technical cooperation (TC) assignments assisted with a detailed analysis of the key technical and commercial risks and a carbon market scoping study to allow the Bank to develop a possible carbon transaction for this project.
