Harry Boyd-Carpenter: EBRD considering issuing green bonds in Azerbaijan

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is actively seeking opportunities to issue green bonds in Azerbaijan and is ready to cooperate with interested parties in this area, Harry Boyd-Carpenter, managing director of the EBRD Sustainable Infrastructure Group, said in an interview with Report.

"We haven't yet done a green bond in Azerbaijan. We've done one in Georgia, and I know that there's a lot of friendly rivalry, so it's good that we make sure we do one in Azerbaijan now.

We offer the full range of financing mechanisms. One of the virtues of EBRD is that we're very flexible in our financing. We have the capacity to lend to the government, to public companies, we lend to private companies, we also lend through local banks. Occasionally we make equity investments, and yes, you mentioned green bonds, we're very keen on using the capital markets, so where we can, we use them.

What have we done specifically in Azerbaijan? We've recently provided the loan to the water agency to support the development of water facilities in Ganja. Last year, we lent to private companies to support the development of very large solar plants. We also signed agreements with two Azerbaijani banks for them to make loans to customers, the sorts of customers that we can't reach because we're not in a position to lend directly to smaller businesses, but we lend to local banks that then onlend that money to local customers," he noted.

Full interview is available here.