Our Approach to Sustainable Development
As an international financial institution and a leading regional development bank, the Eurasian Development Bank is committed to promoting and supporting the sustainability objectives of its member states.
The Bank promotes sustainable development through infrastructure projects and has set itself the goal oof developing green and social finance, and contributing to greater appeal of such investment in the private sector by reducing borrowing risks and costs.
Environmental and Social Assessment Sustainability Governance
Sustainability-Related Materials
Sustainability principles
The Eurasian Development Bank’s mandate includes the goal and capability of promoting the economic integration and sustainable growth of its member-states. The Bank also strives to raise infrastructure project sustainability standards – project implementation without compromising the region’s environment, society and long-term development. The Bank encourages clients directly to implement market best practices and contribute to the progress of the region’s sustainable development agenda. To achieve this goal, the Bank demonstrates a long-lasting commitment to excellence, together with responsible and sustainable development by integrating environmental, social, governance and climate factors into its business activities and decision-making process throughout its value chain.
The Bank adheres to the following six guiding and interlinked sustainability principles:
Principle 1
Sustainable Governance and Responsible Investment.
Principle 2
ESG risk management as an integral pillar of the Bank’s activities.
Principle 3
Financing a meaningful sustainability impact.
Principle 4
Supporting Member States and clients in their sustainability journey.
Principle 5
Managing our own operations and impact.
Principle 6
Accountability to all stakeholders.
The EDB Sustainability Principles are publicly available in both Russian and English.
As outlined in its Strategy 2022-2026, the Bank’s goal is to promote concern for the environment, efficient use of resources and better living standards in the EAEU+ countries. As an international development bank, we are refining and expanding the availability of green finance instruments in Eurasia. In building our project portfolio, we are guided by the goals of sustainable development – each project is assessed for its carbon footprint and social impact.
Sustainable development goals
The EDB's activities are instrumental in enhancing the impact of member countries and the international efforts to achieve strong climate outcomes. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are embedded across the Bank's mission, namely, its striving toward enhanced economic growth in the countries where the Bank operates. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, using natural resources responsibly and efficiently, utilising clean water and energy, implementing the best available technologies, improving people's access to a resilient infrastructure and social facilities, boosting jobs with decent working conditions and promoting sustainable economic growth – these are the characteristics of the projects the EDB seeks to support and prioritise.
According to the EDB's 2022-2026 Strategy, the Bank is a leader in fulfilling the SDGs of countries with smaller economies. To achieve this, the Bank plans to respond promptly to their needs, to reinforce its representative offices and to pursue a flexible approach to pricing its credit, investment and commission products, and an adaptive approach to project implementation in these countries. The Bank supports its member countries in their journey towards achieving the SDGs through close partnership with public authorities and other development banks, providing technical expertise and co-financing programmes, technologies and projects.
When forming a pool of promising projects, the Bank conducts a standalone assessment of their compliance with the SDGs covering not only the direct results of project implementation but also indirect impact on the economy as a whole, as well as environmental and social impacts. The relevant SDGs to which contributions are measured are determined by the country strategies based on in-depth analytical expertise.
Sustainable portfolio
The EDB can have a direct and long-lasting positive impact on the environmental, climate and social spheres of the member countries through its business activities and projects financed by the Bank, primarily focused on infrastructure with a significant integration effect.
The Bank classifies as green projects those that meet one of the established taxonomies (Taxonomy of Green Projects of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Taxonomy of Green and Adaptation Projects of the Russian Federation, EU Taxonomy, ECE Model Taxonomy, Climate Bonds Taxonomy) and that have significant long-term environmental and climate change effects. The EDB's current investment portfolio of green projects for the first half of 2024 amounts for more than US$ 942.2 mln, which accounts for over 19% of the total current portfolio. Meanwhile, the Bank is committed to expanding the share of green investments and increasing green finance: in the first half of 2024, the cumulative portfolio of green projects was already US$ 1.65 bln, or 36 projects.
Approximately 70% of EDB's green projects are focused on renewable energy sources contributing to mitigating climate change, namely solar, wind and hydro accounting for 20.6%, 16.4% and 16.7%, respectively. One third of green projects involve retrofitting existing critical infrastructure in the energy sector and energy efficiency solutions.
Picture 1
Green projects in the cumulative investment portfolio, mln USD, 2018-1H2024
Learn more about EDB projects
Sustainability materiality
The material aspect assessment identifies what the Bank's stakeholders deem important and what they believe the EDB can influence. This practice helps align the Bank's sustainability priorities, goals and objectives with what is important to stakeholders. In this way, the Bank shows readiness for dialogue and cooperation with stakeholders.
The most important aspects of sustainability for the Bank and its stakeholders are:
- Labour conditions;
- Corporate behaviour;
- Human capital development;
- Commitment to global sustainable development standards and principles;
- Economic growth and regional integration.
Detailed Results summary of the Materiality Assessment and a supplementary Excel file with all the criteria and definitions used for the survey are publicly available in both Russian and English.
More about sustainbility materiality
In the second half of 2023, for the first time, the Bank undertook a thorough survey with key internal and external stakeholders to determine its materiality assessment. The Bank acknowledges the benefits of systematic assessment:
- a critical strategic approach to reduce information asymmetries between internal and external priorities;
- an instrument for redeeming misalignments in terms of primary factors across the environmental, social and governance dimensions;
- promotion of collaboration and convergence of expectations in the long term;
- commitment to incorporating a diverse set of stakeholder inputs into its decision-making process.
The materiality assessment involves a multi-step examination of best practices and cross-references contained in the literature:
- proprietary methodologies and indicators applied by reporting frameworks and ESG rating agencies;
- extensive peer benchmarking, identifying sector/industry-specific standards and norms;
- the Bank’s institutional strategy, stakeholder survey, and its own intellectual capital and expertise.
Within an extensive landscape of ESG factors screened, the analytical review identifies a tailored selection of the most significant criteria for inclusion in the assessment, considering the importance to respondents and the potential impact for the organisation.
The findings of the framework are plotted in a materiality matrix and analysed alongside open-ended feedback. The Bank can understand the foresight of interested parties and integrate the results into a strategic roadmap. It strives to allocate the resources and endeavours most relevant to the sustainability-driven objectives and ambitions of the Bank.
The Bank will perform the materiality assessment and its reporting diligently, on a regular basis. This continual resolution empowers the organisation to keep pace with the latest trends and advancements of the agenda, as well as to align with the evolving regulatory, normative, scientific and technological landscape of the sustainable agenda.
