The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has invested some 800 million euro ($872.3 million) in environmentally-friendly projects in Serbia in the period between 2006 and 2016, EBRD climate finance associate Ana Bachurova and EBRD director for Serbia Daniel Berg said.
In 2016, green investments accounted for 39% of the EBRD’s total business volume in Serbia, Bachurova and Berg said in a feature article posted on Wednesday on the Balkan Green Energy News website, managed by Serbian civil society organisation Center for Promotion of Sustainable Development.
The EBRD has provided 65 million euro to four commercial banks in Serbia for on-lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and households for renewable energy and energy efficiency since 2009. The bank is working with the European Union this year to set up a new credit line facility dedicated to energy efficiency in the residential sector, Bachurova and Berg said.
The bank is also working to make state-run power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) more accountable to Serbian citizens and to reinforce the firm’s environmental and social policies, including its engagement with local communities.
The key environmentally-friendly projects of EBRD in Serbia include the Belgrade bus fleet renewal programme, upgrades to Belgrade’s water infrastructure, numerous projects with power utility EPS and the Schwarz Group retail expansion, Bachurova and Berg added.
The projects under the Green Economy Transition (GET) approach of EBRD have led to a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2)-equivalent emissions of 1,400 kilotonnes per year, approximately equivalent to removing 300,000 passenger vehicles from the country’s roads annually.
