The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has invested a record amount in Poland  in 2022: €990 million. This level of investment made Poland the EBRD’s fourth-largest market last year and was a significant increase on the €600 million committed in 2021.

Elisabetta Falcetti, EBRD Director for Central Europe and based in Warsaw, said: “EBRD support through debt and equity helped Poland’s capital markets and the industry through the turmoil caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it is also crucial that a vast majority of our funds boosted the green and circular economy. The EBRD office in Warsaw is now shared with our colleagues from Kyiv, who worked tirelessly to ensure the Bank’s record investment in Ukraine last year. I am proud of what EBRD teams based in Poland achieved last year, operating in extraordinary circumstances.”

Projects supported by the EBRD in 2022 alone will add 1,000 MW (1GW) of renewable energy capacity in Poland in the short to medium term. Overall, eighty per cent of last year’s investment was provided to low-carbon transition projects, including also sustainable transport, green finance instruments and so on.

The largest investment, of PLN 800 million (€170 million equivalent), was to support a sustainability-linked bond by Cyfrowy Polsat, the telecoms and media group, which recently announced expansion into the renewable energy sector where it will invest the bond proceeds.

The largest infrastructure project supported the construction of a new container terminal by Baltic Hub in the port of Gdansk, the only port in the Baltic Sea to handle ultra-large container vessels. The EBRD €100 million sustainability-linked loan will help reduce emissions and diversify export routes via Poland from neighbouring countries, including Ukraine. Other green transport highlights are a tramway extension in Krakow that is also the city’s first public-private partnership, and a US$ 75 million equity investment (followed by a €52 million loan in early 2023) in Elemental’s new e-waste recycling facility which will process parts from used electric cars.

€126 million to renewable energy developers – €45 million for solar, €30.7 million for wind, €50 million for green bonds – will translate into 300 MW of new generating capacity, contributing to Poland’s energy security as the country builds up sustainable replacements for Russian gas.

Poland became the first country to deploy the EBRD’s new Supply Chains Solution Framework (SCSF); the framework’s pilot project with Santander Factoring supported the retailer Zabka.

Among the projects aimed at supporting the country that hosts more than a million displaced Ukrainians was a pioneering project to reduce the shortage of residential accommodation: a €50 million loan to Resi4Rent to build more rental units.

The Bank’s total commitment to Poland since 1991 has reached €12.4 billion, of which 92 per cent has been invested as debt or equity into private-sector companies.

Source of Article; www.ebrd.com