NEFCO’s financial accounts for 2010 show significant reductions of carbon dioxide emissions

The Nordic Environment Finance Corporation’s (NEFCO) financial accounts for 2010 show positive environmental outcomes. In particular climate investments undertaken by the corporation achieved encouraging ecological results.

Thanks to investments in biogas, wind power and the manufacture of heating boilers that use biomass instead of fossil fuels, the  release of carbon dioxide was reduced significantly in projects co-financed by the corporation. On the whole, direct and indirect reductions of carbon dioxide emissions in the projects financed by NEFCO in 2010 amounted to some 3 million tonnes, a figure corresponding to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by 6.2 million persons travelling by airplane from Helsinki to New York.

All in all, 62 new projects were approved and administered by NEFCO in 2010, a year in which the corporation also celebrated its 20th anniversary. During the period NEFCO signed project agreements worth EUR 72.7 million. Most of these projects involved renewable energy, installation of energy efficiency technologies, and the modernization of existing wastewater treatment plants.

NEFCO’s financial accounts for 2010 show a EUR 458,000 surplus after reserving EUR 1.9 million for the Nordic Environment Development Fund, which finances cleaner production technologies and energy saving projects in Eastern Europe. 

During the period, the NEFCO Carbon Fund (NeCF) managed to expand its capital base by EUR 18 million and signed a landmark deal in which the corporation will buy up to 4.6 million Certified Emission Reductions (CER’s) from two wind farms in Mexico. The project is believed to be one of the largest of its kind in the carbon market during 2010.

In June, a climate guarantee vehicle called ProClimate Facility was established jointly with the Nordic Development Fund. The new facility can extend partial loan guarantees and provide technical assistance for the identification of climate projects.

Last year also paved the way for new activities in Ukraine. The framework agreement, which was signed by the Ukrainian government in 2009, was ratified by the Ukrainian parliament in September 2010.  The ratification means that NEFCO will now be able to finance municipal energy efficiency projects in the country. The first municipal pilot projects were started in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv in Western Ukraine last autumn.

Efforts to improve the ecological status of the Baltic Sea also received new funding with loan agreements on wastewater treatment being signed in Sosnovy Bor and St. Petersburg.

”We are delighted by the fact that we have managed to increase the number of projects and broaden our scope of activities with the help  of new loan facilities, which were established last year. This clearly shows that there is a considerable demand for the financial services provided by NEFCO, says NEFCO’s Managing Director, Magnus Rystedt.

NEFCO is an international financial institution owned by the five Nordic countries, which  mainly finances environmentally-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 420 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