EBRD to step up work to support SDGs

11 May 18

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will boost its activities in support of the global sustainable development goals.

The bank’s president admitted that more could be done, especially in the face of major international challenges.

Suma Chakrabarti said that all the bank’s shareholders have signed up to delivering the sustainable development goals and to addressing climate change.

He said: “It was recognised by all our shareholders that even with our record delivery of investment, we have the capital to do more.”

It is estimated that the bank could invest around €3bn more a year.

It financed projects worth €9.7bn in 2017 and €9.4bn in 2016.

The bank is currently looking at how it could stretch its capital to do more, including in the 38 economies it currently works in.

“I am pretty hopeful that we will be able to start doing more in our existing regions as early as next year,” Chakrabarti told journalists in Jordon, following the bank’s annual meeting.

The EBRD was also considering the question of expansion in its southern and eastern Mediterrenean (SEMED) region.

The region includes Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and the West Bank and Gaza, where EBRD already invests, but also Algeria, Libya and Syria, where it is not yet active.

In an opinion piece by think-tank E3G’s Helena Wright, the EBRD was criticised for lagging behind its counterparts and the private sector in moving away from funding fossil fuels.

In response, an EBRD spokesperson told PF International: “The bank has mainstreamed climate mitigation and resilience into its business which is organised around sectors.”

It added that it is working to align its work with the Paris Agreement.

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