Team to help disbursement of EUR500 million credit line for sustainable investments
11/30/2022 ISTANBUL, TÜRKIYE TSX, NYSE:STN
Stantec, a global leader in sustainable design and engineering has been selected by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to provide technical assistance services for the Green Economy Financing Facility (GEFF) in Türkiye. GEFF Türkiye is a credit line from the EBRD consisting of funds channeled through local financial institutions to help businesses, homeowners and the public sector make green economy investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and climate resilience measures. The EBRD works with local financial institutions to disburse these funds in an effort to assist the Turkish economy’s transition to a greener economy, while strengthening the competitiveness of Turkish corporate and financial institutions. Stantec will support local financing institutions and their clients to make sure the projects comply with GEFF Türkiye facility criteria. Stantec’s consultants also play a technical role, helping companies, homeowners and the public sector identify opportunities for sustainable and renewable energy investments.
“Since 2010, our team has managed the EBRD’s financing facilities in Türkiye, which have made well over EUR2 billion available for green investments in the country. The management of these types of projects has become a true specialty of our Turkish team over the past decade,” said Cenk Gümüşkaya, operations manager for Stantec in Türkiye.
Stantec’s decade-plus work experience with the EBRD has included the management of three sustainable energy and energy efficiency financing facilities: TurSEFF, MidSEFF and TuREEFF. Projects financed through these facilities have made significant contributions to cutting Türkiye’s energy imports and reducing its current account deficit. Energy efficiency projects have saved close to 12 million gigajoules per year, around 1% of total national energy demand in 2021. Renewables projects represent over 9% of currently installed solar photovoltaic and waste-to-energy capacity in Türkiye, almost 7% of wind power capacity and 5% of geothermal energy capacity, and 1% hydroelectric capacity. Collectively, they generate 6 TWh of clean power (primary energy equivalent) per year, around 1.8% per cent of national electricity production in 2021.
GEFF Türkiye brings together the previous financing facilities of EBRD in Türkiye and builds on their successes with a credit line of EUR500 million from the EBRD and EUR21.5 million of concessional financing from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF). Moreover, the program aims to increase cooperation with participating financial institutions (PFIs) and their sub-borrowers to mainstream corporate climate governance and gender-responsive on-lending. It will also seek to better integrate climate change and gender equality considerations into PFI’s lending strategies and practices.
In addition to providing technical support, the Stantec team builds capacity with local banks so they can identify, assess, and finance green projects themselves. The team also helps to prepare successful loan and leasing applications under the programme, to support on-lending to vendors and producers of eligible material and equipment covered by the EBRD’s Green Technology Selector for Türkiye.
“As Stantec, we have well over 10 years of experience managing and implementing the EBRD’s financing facilities in Türkiye and several other countries. We are proud to be involved in this next phase of green finance that the EBRD is providing. It’s inspirational to be involved in an important program with such an important community impact,” concludes Dr. Murat Sarıoğlu, regional managing director, Türkiye at Stantec.
GEFF Türkiye program was launched in April 2022. The launch of the program was recently celebrated in Istanbul, bringing together speakers from the EBRD, CTF, the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance, and several local financial institutions. The event also hosted the TurSEFF Awards Ceremony, an event that celebrated the achievements of the program.
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Communities are fundamental. Whether around the corner or across the globe, they provide a foundation, a sense of place and of belonging. That's why at Stantec, we always design with community in mind.
We care about the communities we serve—because they're our communities too. This allows us to assess what's needed and connect our expertise, to appreciate nuances and envision what's never been considered, to bring together diverse perspectives so we can collaborate toward a shared success.
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