An energetic and impactful year for EBRD Green Cities!

As we culminate the 8th year of the Green Cities programme, we celebrate an expanded remit, with the financing of sustainable energy projects and approval by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board of a geographical expansion of the GCF Green Cities facility.

A special thank you to our Mayors, Green City Officers, partners and all our donors for their continued commitment and support. This year’s achievements are a result of great collaboration.

Investments in green and climate action

In 2023, 20 Green Cities investment projects have been signed for a total amount of EUR 489.3 million.

This included several ‘firsts’, from construction of Green Affordable Housing in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) to the biggest E-bus Project of the Bank to date in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) - whose buses we were pleased to experience in operation at EBRD’s Annual Meeting and Business Forum last May - to rehabilitation of the River Bic in Chisinau (Moldova) - a 100% adaptation project and the Bank’s first to introduce a form of Nature Based Solution.

Further, during this year, the Khmelnytskyi Electric Trolleybus project (Ukraine) was signed. This project is financing the acquisition of new trolleybuses along with essential maintenance and diagnostic equipment. This was one of the priority actions identified in the Green City Action Plan (GCAP) adjusted to accommodate the needs of Internally Displaced People.

During the last 12 months there has also been significant progress with implementation of ongoing projects, including:

• Delivery of all 25 trolleybuses to Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) that are fully operational, completion of work on the tram track overhaul as well as energy efficiency improvements in 15 public buildings.
• Ongoing construction work in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) to improve the Mongolian capital’s waste management.
• Signing in a record turnaround time the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (‘EPC’) contract in Alexandria (Egypt) for the metro project.
• Fully disbursing the funds under the Urban Rehabilitation project in Craiova (Romania) where the implementation work of public buildings rehabilitation is nearing completion.
• Committing the second tranche of the district heating project in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) following the progress of the construction works, to continue implementing the improvement and upgrade of the district heating network infrastructure in the city.
• Delivery and inauguration of new green buses for Yerevan (Armenia)

The Green Cities portfolio, of approx. EUR 2.7 billion, has a significant impact with CO2 savings equivalent to taking 1,007,779 cars off the road each year.

Green City Action Plans (GCAPs)

EBRD supported Ankara, Iasi, Gaziantep, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Medias, Timisoara, Ganja, 6 October City, and Bishkek in completing their GCAPs. 

9 cities embarked on their GCAP journey: Samarkand, Karlovac, Bucharest, Cairo, Shymkent, Istanbul, Agadir, Alba Iulia and Vilnius.

EBRD is fully committed to continuing support for our Ukrainian Green Cities. Kyiv and Khmelnytskyi municipalities approved their GCAPs. 

In 2023 we welcomed 4 new cities into the programme. Alba Iulia in Romania, Bursa in Turkiye, Vilnius - our first Green City in Lithuania, and Guelmim in Morocco, which is the first region to join the programme.

Outreach, engagement and knowledge sharing

38 Green City Officers joined us at our London HQ in November for a series of inspiring knowledge sharing and capacity building activities that reinforced the importance and dynamism of our network.

An audience of 898 engaged with EBRD Green Cities events at COP28, Dubai and the EBRD Annual Meeting and Business Forum, Samarkand. The livestream from our event in Samarkand is available to view here.

At COP28 we were delighted to hold the event Green Cities: Scaling-up Finance for Sustainable Urbanisation in collaboration with the COP28 Presidency with a keynote by Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion. You can view the recording here. 

2023 was also the year where Mayors featured centre stage at COP. As we continue to support our cities in their common goal of a green and sustainable future, we are pleased to see greater recognition from the wider community of their essential role in facing the climate crisis.