EBRD's green financing hits record 

The EBRD's green financing hit a record €5.4 billion, or 51 per cent, of the total business volume of €10.4 billion in 2021, Report informs, citing the Bank.

"These excellent results underscore the Bank's strong dedication to continuing to support its clients in the wake of the pandemic as well as its commitment to decarbonise economies and enable the transition to a more sustainable future, with a focus on involving the private sector and supporting reforms to tackle climate change," said EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso.

The EBRD, a leading climate finance investor, works in some of the world's most fossil-fuel dependent countries and aims to support them in planning and executing their transition to a low-carbon economy.

Among its many successes is EBRD Green Cities, a €5 billion urban environmental programme, which has grown to include 53 cities in its five years of existence and helps them identify, prioritise and connect their environmental challenges with sustainable infrastructure investments and policy measures.

The EBRD announced in November that the programme was doubling in size, allocating a further €2 billion to invest in green urban infrastructure over the next two years. The total number of its projects in 2021 was 413, compared to 411 in 2020. The share of private sector investment rose four percentage points to 76 per cent.

Annual Mobilised Investment - the amount made available to clients from entities other than the EBRD due to the Bank's direct involvement – climbed sharply to €1.8 billion from €1.2 billion in 2020. Disbursements totalled €7.3 billion for the year.

The EBRD raised approximately €1.2 billion in donor funds to support its operations in 2021 and is an important implementing partner for the European Union, the Bank's largest multilateral donor.

Under its EU budget and NextGenerationEU funding programmes, the EU provided €291 million in 2021, and through the EU's pandemic-related Recovery Resilience Facility, €500 million in concessional finance were provided by Greece.

Inclusion and digital, the EBRD's two strategic priorities other than green, also made a major contribution to the Bank's success in 2021.

Projects with a strong gender component accounted for 35 per cent of projects signed during the year, nearly double a target floor of 18 per cent.

With two new interlinked EBRD strategies for the promotion of gender equality and equality of opportunity released in November, the Bank now aims to integrate gender equality components into at least 40 per cent of its operations by the end of 2025, and a quarter of EBRD annual investments will fund inclusion projects.