NIB to contribute EUR 15 million to carbon fund

NIB has decided to contribute EUR 15 million to a European post-2012 carbon credit fund. The fund will support environmentally beneficial projects via the acquisition of carbon credits generated in the period starting in 2013, that is, after the Kyoto Protocol commitment period and the second phase of the European Trading System.

The initiative to set up the fund has been taken by the European Investment Bank and alongside NIB also Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, Instituto de Crédito Oficial and possibly other institutions will participate in the fund.

“The aim is to launch the fund during winter 2008. Our perception is that the private sector is not yet willing to absorb the regulatory uncertainties related to the post-Kyoto period. Thus, an intervention by this group of international financial institutions and national development banks will provide added value,” says Mr Harro Pitkänen, Senior Director at NIB.

Projects to be publicly disclosed prior to decision

Environmental issues are in the forefront when NIB makes financing decisions. NIB’s new environmental policy, which enters into force in the beginning of January, requires that NIB lending take economic as well as ecological and social issues into account. NIB sees this triple bottom line approach as vital for good business.

“The financial sector has a great impact on its environment, although mainly indirectly. Thus the sector plays an important role in the cooperation aimed at diminishing harmful effects on the environment. NIB believes that economic growth and a healthy environment go hand in hand and wants to be an active contributor to environmental investments, especially in the Baltic Sea area,” says Mr Johnny Åkerholm, NIB’s President and CEO.

NIB prioritises projects with environmental benefits, in line with its mission emphasising the Bank’s role in enhancing competitiveness and the environment. Furthermore, NIB performs an environmental review of all projects considered for financing. To obtain financing, a project has to comply with NIB’s environmental policy. In the future NIB will publish information on all potential investment projects having an extensive environmental impact. The public will have the opportunity to comment on the projects through NIB’s website before the Bank makes any decisions on financing.

“NIB finances five to ten projects of this kind per year. It is important for us to keep up a dialogue with different stakeholders,” says Mr Johan Ljungberg, Environmental Manager at NIB.