EBRD presents awards for green trade

The EBRD’s Green Trade Facilitation Programme (Green TFP) has recognised the most successful banks under the programme by presenting them with awards for their performance in 2018.

The Green TFP allows partner banks under the TFP to use their existing TFP facilities for the financing of exports, imports and the local distribution of imported green technologies and services, in line with the EBRD’s Green Economy Transition (GET) approach.

The prize for the Most Active Issuing Bank in 2018 – Green Trade went to Raiffeisen Bank Aval Ukraine.

The bank facilitated the highest number of  transactions, most of them in the agribusiness sector, with an impact equivalent to annual energy savings of 18,514 MWh, the equivalent of one-year public lighting in Kherson, a city with 250,000 inhabitants.

The prize for the Most Active Confirming Bank in 2018 – Green Trade was awarded to UniCredit. The bank successfully supported the highest number of transactions under Green TFP as a confirming bank with an impact equivalent to annual energy savings of 10,235 MWh, the equivalent of year-long charging of 1,741 electric cars.

The prize for Deal of the Year – Green Trade was awarded jointly to Converse Bank (Armenia) and KBC Bank (Belgium) for a transaction involving an Armenian greenhouse grower of strawberries, supporting private entrepreneurship in the country with the help of a local bank.

The environmental impact was equivalent to annual energy savings of 17,281 MWh, the equivalent of 29,270 car trips between Brussels and Yerevan.

Francis Malige, EBRD Managing Director for Financial Institutions said: “The EBRD’s commitment to sustainable economies comes in different shapes and forms, but in only one colour – green. And we could not do this without our partners. We are proud today to honour for the first time issuing and confirming banks that have shown an outstanding commitment to green trade. Trade in energy efficiency, water efficiency, renewable energy and climate resilience technologies is very important for the EBRD regions and contributes to the EBRD’s commitment to support sustainable investments.”

Since the Green TFP was introduced in 2016 the EBRD has supported more than €425 million in green trade financing. Almost 600 Green TFP transactions have been financed in 15 EBRD countries of operations, resulting in annual energy savings of 733,130 MWh, water savings of 1,618,025 m3 and emission reductions of 310,728 tonnes CO2 equivalent.

Notable transactions include:

• the import of solar cells from Italy to the Kyrgyz Republic for the production of solar panels
• the export of water treatment equipment from Greece to Egypt
• the import of agricultural machinery and equipment from Austria to Moldova, and from France to Ukraine.