The second edition of the Finance in Common Summit (FiCS) ended in Rome today. VEB.RF Senior Banker Sergei Storchak told the summit about VEB.RF’s products and priorities contributing towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to promoting the green finance market and facilitating energy transition in Russia.

VEB.RF is implementing its own transformation strategy to give a sharp focus to protecting the environment, improving the well-being of people and communities, and introducing best practices in governance,” Sergei Storchak said. “According to the IDFC methodology, green projects already make up more than a third of our portfolio, and we intend to increase their proportion. We are active in financing electric transport and clean energy sources, and helping Russian manufacturers to switch to low-carbon technology.”

According to Sergei Storchak, VEB.RF has a government mandate to develop Russia’s national taxonomy for green projects. Last month, the corresponding document was approved by the Russian Prime Minister. “Russia became one of the few countries with their own national taxonomies,” he said. “We have already started promoting our taxonomy domestically and will present it to the international community at the COP26 conference in November. It is 95% compliant with the new EU taxonomy, and we hope it will meet with a positive reception from the business and expert communities.”

In his speech, Sergei Storchak also told the summit of public development banks about inequalities in access to financing for decarbonisation and energy transition in different countries. VEB.RF is currently subject to restrictions on long-term borrowing from the international market. “Climate issues and related processes have no respect for political boundaries,” he said. “Limiting the ability of VEB.RF and other Russian institutions to raise capital for decarbonisation means putting obstacles in the way of the Paris Agreement. We believe that all restrictions of this kind should be lifted, at least in the case of financial instruments and projects recognised as green in accordance with internationally recognised taxonomies and verification systems. We are open to working together with the coalition members on these issues.”

The Finance in Common Summit (FiCS) is a large international event organised by a coalition of 530 development institutions from all over the world. The goal of the FiCS coalition is to reinforce the global financial architecture towards sustainable development, with public development banks playing a central role. The coalition brings together not only development institutions but also key stakeholders such as governments, regulators, the United Nations, private investors, civil society, academia and central banks. The inaugural Summit was held in Paris in November 2020.