The bank has pledged to dedicate 40% of its investments to the ‘green economy’ by 2020, which includes investing more in renewables and ruling out financing for coal and harmful gasses.

Last year the bank provided financial support to 395 green projects worth a total of €9.5bn. In 2017 the bank’s investment in these types of projects hit a record high of €9.7bn.

It set out its commitments to support the United Nation’s 2030 agenda on sustainable development, at a meeting in Jordan in May last year. Tackling the impacts of climate change is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

At a meeting this week, EBRD president Suma Chakrabarti told staff the bank would “raise the quality and quantity of its investments over the next two years” and that he was confident the bank could support the SDGs.

The EBRD also quadrupled the size of its green cities programme, which supports environmentally friendly municipal investments, to almost €1bn, it said in a statement.

It said: “Cities represent one of the greatest opportunities to address climate change and environmental degradation, since they account for 70% of energy use and 80% of greenhouse gas emissions.”

In October last year the bank approved an additional €700m of funding to the green cities programme, on top of the €250m already allocated.