Smart city investment announced on the margins of COP26 in Glasgow
WASHINGTON – U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) today announced the financial close of a $267 million investment guaranty to Smart RJ Concessionária de Iluminação Pública SPE S.A, or “Smart Rio,” to support the modernization of the public lighting system and installation and management of smart city infrastructure in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The modernization will focus on upgrading the city to climate-friendly infrastructure that will significantly reduce the city’s public lighting’s consumption of electricity and promote cost savings, while enhancing reliability and resilience. As the world community and climate leaders are meeting in Glasgow this week for COP26, the investment underscores DFC’s commitment to catalyzing solutions to the climate crisis, tackling the challenges of funding large scale social and environmental impact projects in Brazil, and supporting President Biden’s quadrupling of climate finance, announced earlier this year.
"DFC is committed to mobilizing climate finance to help our partner countries across the developing world tackle the climate crisis,” said DFC Acting CEO Dev Jagadesan. “Our investment in Smart Rio will modernize city lighting and other key features, and promote a climate-friendly infrastructure model that can be replicated elsewhere to benefit people, communities, and the environment."
This project will support the retrofit or addition of public lighting units with light-emitting diode (“LED”) lighting technology by September 2022, aiming for a reduction of carbon emissions of at least 70,000 tons/year and energy savings of 60 percent per year compared to the current system. The project will also install smart city infrastructure, adding 5,000 public Wi-Fi access points, connecting 6,000 smart traffic lights, and more which will benefit residents across the city and modernize outdated, inefficient infrastructure. Seventy-four percent of the public lighting modernization will be in neighborhoods below the city’s weighted average income level, ensuring equitable distribution of the project’s work throughout the city.
DFC's investments, including Smart Rio, are helping advance the Build Back Better World (B3W) Initiative, which aims to mobilize private sector capital for infrastructure projects in developing countries.
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U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is America’s development bank. DFC partners with the private sector to finance solutions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today. We invest across sectors including energy, healthcare, critical infrastructure, and technology. DFC also provides financing for small businesses and women entrepreneurs in order to create jobs in emerging markets. DFC investments adhere to high standards and respect the environment, human rights, and worker rights.