The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved a strategy for 2026-30, with a target of "at least" €150bn ($174.5bn) in cumulative "green financing" in 2026-30, including its own finance and mobilised private investments.
This level is "a floor it will seek to exceed", the EBRD said. The bank will dedicate "at least 50pc of [its] total annual business volume to the green space" — a goal it also met in 2025 — it said. It also plans to ramp up projects with a "climate resilience component" and investigate nature-positive investments, it said. The EBRD has invested more than €75bn in "green projects" since 2006, it said.
"We are responding to our clients' demands to support their green transition", EBRD president Odile Renaud-Basso said.
The bank set out plans for six sectors — energy, industry, agrifood, transport and urban and financial systems. It aims to treble the renewable energy capacity that it finances or facilities in 2023-30, compared to in 2010-22. This would add a further 35GW of renewable energy capacity in 2023-30, it said.
The EBRD also plans to increase the adoption of transition plans by the banks it finances, with a goal of trebling coverage by 2030 — equalling more than 60pc of its client banks with a transition plan, up from around 20pc in 2025.
EBRD regions' "green-related financial needs are projected to rise to more than €500bn in 2030, five times the current level", the bank said. A study from the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance in 2024 put the annual investment required to hit climate and nature goals at $6.5 trillion by 2030, mostly for developing countries.
Several key donors of international development aid have scaled back or announced cuts to funding in the last 18 months, which is likely to affect projects tackling climate change in developing nations. Governments and campaigners have shifted their focus to multilateral development banks (MDBs) — such as the EBRD — and the private sector, in lieu of public funding.
The EBRD invests or manages a portfolio in 43 countries across Europe, Africa and Asia. The bank is owned by 77 countries, the EU and the EU's European Investment Bank — a fellow MDB.
