Building a Green Future: EBRD’s Investments in the Decarbonisation of the Built Environment (2016-2022)

The decarbonisation of the construction and buildings sector is crucial for addressing the global climate emergency. Buildings are responsible for more than one third of carbon emissions worldwide and progress in greening the sector to meet net-zero objectives has been limited so far. Internally, supporting decarbonisation across the built environment is a key thematic area under the EBRD’s Green Economy Transition (GET) 2.1 Approach, as well as a critical component for several country and sector strategies.

The objective of this cluster evaluation is to provide evaluative evidence of the effectiveness and efficiency of the Bank’s approach to the decarbonisation of the built environment. It covers 11 mature investment projects with private and public sector clients, all validated on-site, in five countries where the Bank has supported the decarbonisation of the built environment. The cluster evaluation sample only includes projects that the Bank has directly financed. It excludes the Bank’s support for decarbonisation via intermediated green finance lines with partner banks, equity projects (with one exception) and public-private partnership (PPP) projects involving green buildings. The objective was to assess what progress the EBRD had achieved within the cluster of similar projects and to identify common themes, challenges, insights and lessons to be used in future operations.