Tunisia, located in northern Africa, shares land borders with Algeria and Libya. The country has a total area of 164,000 square kilometers (sq km) and over 1,300 km of coastline bordering the Mediterranean sea. The country is vulnerable to natural disasters, such as heavy rainfall, flash flooding, droughts, storms, sandstorms, and earthquakes. It has also been affected by sea-level rises that also pose a significant threat to the country’s coastline due to storm surges, inundation, and salinization, but also increasingly harmful storm surge. The increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are likely to lead to droughts, soil erosion, and desertification.
INVESTING IN TUNISIA
CIF’s investments in Tunisia are through its Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and Forest Investment Program (FIP). Motivated by objectives of energy security, climate change mitigation, and regional integration in the Mediterranean, this investment is done through the $490-million Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's concentrated solar power (CSP) initiative. It is supporting the development of 960 megawatts of new CSP capacity across Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, and Libya.
Tunisia's FIP investment plan outlines measures to increase carbon sequestration, as well as enhance the production, use, and value of the goods and socioeconomic and environmental services of the agro-sylvo-pastoral landscapes. It also aims to strengthen the governance of the forest and pastoral sector, along with the sustainable management of rangelands.
Through the CIF-TAF, $1 million was programmed for technical assistance activities in 2021. This supported technical preparatory studies for the implementation of sustainable district heating and cooling systems in Tunis.
