On 9 February, it was announced that we secured a contract with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to develop Green Financing Roadmaps for up to eight cities across Europe and central Asia. The Roadmaps will help cities access alternative finance for projects and programmes that address climate change challenges and help them meet climate-related targets.
E Co. is to work with AECOM and other partners, including ENOVA, as the project’s green financing specialist to deliver the Green Financing Roadmaps framework.
Green Financing Roadmaps to tackle city-wide environmental issues in Europe and central Asia
E Co. Principal consultant, Seth Landau, says:
“We’re very excited to continue our work in the regions related to climate finance and extend to other countries as well as a part of this framework. This is a great extension of our work developing Green City Action Plans with EBRD in Kosovo, Serbia, and Romania and our ongoing work with GCF Accredited Entities around the world.”
Under the three-year framework, E Co. will work as a part of consortium with AECOM to deliver technical support, working with cities to identify eligible green investments and improvements to help mobilise green financing, including green bonds. Additionally, we will partner with each city to take ownership of their Roadmap and help them build the necessary internal capacity to attract alternative green and private financing.
This will include the development of appropriate performance standards and benchmarking for priority projects, supporting monitoring and verification, guidance on meeting international reporting standards and establishing transparent criteria for public procurement. The aim is to build confidence in internal processes and reporting to help the cities generate bankable projects and secure investment.
EBRD’s Green Cities programme
The new framework is part of the EBRD Green Cities programme, which will deliver over €2 billion in climate finance to support cities in their green development. It follows AECOM’s appointment to another EBRD framework to develop Green City Action Plans (GCAPs) for the next tranche of cities joining the programme. The GCAPs take a systemic, city-wide approach to understand environmental issues to help identify projects that will deliver multi-sector benefits to improve the environment and social and economic vitality.