NEFCO’s 2009 financial accounts show encouraging environmental benefits

The Nordic Environment Finance Corporation’s financial accounts for 2009 show encouraging environmental results. The corporation’s environmental status report indicates that, compared to 2008, the emission of environmentally hazardous substances in projects co-financed by NEFCO decreased substantially. Overall, there were considerable reductions in emissions of carbon, sulphur and nitrogen oxides, phosphorus as well as nitrogen.

NEFCO-financed direct and indirect reductions of carbon dioxide emissions amounted to 2.5 million tonnes, which roughly corresponds to 80 per cent of the City of Helsinki’s annual emissions. All in all, last year NEFCO approved and administered 50 new projects – an admirable feat given the difficult financial environment in the corporation’s main operational markets in Russia and the Ukraine.

Overall, NEFCO- financed projects has resulted in the upgrading of wastewater treatment plants, improved waste treatment as well as cleaner production lines at industrial facilities. Largely as a result of earnings from its share investments in other companies, NEFCO achieved a healthy EUR 14.7 million surplus in its 2009 financial accounts. The overall capital base for funds administered by the corporation increased by 17 per cent to some EUR 270 million as an addition to the corporation’s own base capital.

”Despite the global recession and the down-scaling of our lending operations in the Baltic States, we have managed to maintain a steady flow of funding for projects, which are currently generating significant reductions in the emissions of environmentally hazardous substances ”, says NEFCO’s Managing Director, Magnus Rystedt.

One of the year’s highlights was the framework agreement, which NEFCO signed with the Ukrainian government in September. Under the terms of the agreement, NEFCO will, for the first time, be able to finance municipal energy efficiency projects in the country. Another significant development in 2009 was the establishment of the Nordic Climate Facility (NCF), a joint venture between NEFCO and the Nordic Development Fund (NDF), which will allow the corporation to administer environmental projects in low-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Environmental efforts to curb Baltic Sea eutrophication also received a further shot in the arm with the establishment of the BSAP Fund, an initiative championed by NEFCO and the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB). The Fund provides grants for technical projects that support the implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP). The Finnish and Swedish governments have both provided capital for the BSAP Fund.

The NEFCO Carbon Fund (NeCF), which was established in 2008, expanded its capital base by EUR 24 million. Two notable initiatives undertaken by the fund have been the agreement in Vietnam to purchase emission reduction units from a hydro project in the country and from a project aimed at improving energy efficiency at a cement factory in China.

NEFCO is an international financial institution owned by the five Nordic countries and mainly finances environmental-related projects and investments in Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus, in order to generate positive environmental effects for the Nordic region. At present, the funds administered by the corporation are valued at some EUR 383 million.

For more information, please contact:
Magnus Rystedt, Managing Director, NEFCO, +358 50 329 6224
Karl-Johan Lehtinen, Senior Manager, Environmental Affairs, NEFCO, +358 40 593 1239
Mikael Sjövall, Communications Manager, NEFCO, +358 50 3535 045