18.03.2011 | News
The Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) and Prime Finance Bank of St. Petersburg have signed an agreement to finance energy efficiency projects in Russia.
According to the terms of the agreement, Prime Finance Bank will set up an environmental fund, which will provide capital for projects that promote energy efficiency in Russia. The fund is worth EUR 2.2 million and NEFCO will provide EUR 1 million.
The energy efficiency fund is also supported by IFC (a member of the World Bank Group), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as well as the Finnish and Danish ministries of the environment. Moreover, IFC provides training and support for the staff at Prime Finance Bank in order to promote energy efficiency investments.
”We hope that this investment will stimulate the demand for energy saving technologies in Russian industrial enterprises and challenge other financial sector players in Russia to set up similar programmes, says NEFCO’s Senior Investment Manager, Ulf Bojö.
Compared to European levels, Russian energy consumption rates are quite high and currently the country consumes twice the same amount of energy in one administrative district as the Nordic countries consume in one year. High energy consumption levels are particularly common in the industrial sector where equipment is often as old as 25 years.
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