Saint Petersburg, 6 June 2024 — Gazprombank is creating a new platform aimed at helping experts from the BRICS member nations develop key initiatives in the field of sustainable development. The Association is intended for ongoing collaboration to ensure a common approach to sustainable financing, carbon markets, energy transition and other areas of the sustainable development agenda. The idea was announced by Gazprombank First Vice President Ekaterina Salugina-Sorokovaya during a session entitled “BRICS Expansion. New Opportunities for Business Cooperation” held at the XXVII St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The initiative was initially put forward by the green financing subgroup of the BRICS Business Council (which Gazprombank currently chairs) and received the support not only of the subgroup’s foreign participants, but also the heads of the Business Council’s working groups on the Russian side where, in fact, the first draft of an agreement has already been produced. Following its approval, the Association’s first meeting could take place during the next BRICS Business Forum — possibly as early as the end of October this year in Moscow.
The establishment of an Association is intended to ensure that initiatives requiring copious amounts of methodological input actually get implemented. Such initiatives include the creation of a concept for transitional financing and the launch of a single infrastructure for the BRICS carbon market. With the BRICS nations generally having a high share of carbon-intensive industry, transitional financing – intended to help companies hitherto denied access to green financing attract and secure decarbonisation funding – is one of the key areas for development.
Ekaterina Salugina-Sorokovaya: “The establishment of this Association will be one of the landmark events of Russia’s BRICS chairmanship and will mark the beginning of even more intensive levels of cooperation between the member nations. Not only will it allow countries to promote their national interests in terms of sustainable development, the Association will also help coordinate the methodological work carried out in support of key initiatives, and ensure the implementation of agreements that have already been reached.”