This article was originally published on June 24, 2024, at BankWatch Network.
By Pippa Gallop and Andrey Ralev

As an international financial institution mandated to support the development of market economies and sustainable development, the most important contribution the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) can make to biodiversity preservation is to ensure that it does not finance nature-damaging projects.

Its Environmental and Social Policy (ESP) is the main means to achieve this. It consists of a set of EBRD commitments, followed by ten performance requirements that the Bank’s clients must meet. It also contains an exclusion list, with project types that the Bank will not finance.

The Policy is now undergoing revision and it needs not only to maintain the EBRD’s practices with regard to biodiversity, but also to significantly improve them.

Download the full briefing here.