Center-invest Bank acted as a financial partner of the AgriFood Russia 2024 international summit and held a panel discussion on the strategy of coordinating joint actions of business, science and government representatives for the sustainability of the food system in the Southern Russia.
The event took place at the Don State Technical University as part of the implementation of the program for an interregional scientific and educational center in the Southern Russia, combining the potential for innovative development, technological and personnel support of the food cluster of Volgograd and Rostov regions and Krasnodar Krai.
At the summit, clients and experts from Center-invest Bank presented their joint experience in implementing sustainable technologies, financial instruments and green investments to minimize the negative impacts of climate change.
As part of the roundtable discussion on sustainable finance, the head of the regional Rostovstat, Marina Samoylova, shared information on the role of the Rostov region agro-industrial complex in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and statistical data for investors to take climate processes into account. Rostovstat’s experience in creating statistical digests Rostov Region: Movement towards Sustainable Development Goals for 2016-2022 has received high praise from practitioners, investors and scientists. Representatives of the financial sector from Center-invest Bank and PJSC SPB Exchange presented their experience and prospects for financing sustainable development projects, assessing the carbon footprint and the impact of climate risks on such projects. A representative of the real sector of the economy, the head of PL-Agro Pro LLC, spoke about the experience of minimizing climate risks in practice, the main one of which is the maximum diversification of crops and technologies.
The climate agenda and green financing have been among the priority areas of work of Center-invest Bank since 2005. During this time, more than 24 thousand energy efficiency projects worth more than 23.6 billion rubles have been financed. The bank assesses the energy efficiency and calculates the reduction in CO2 emissions of the financed loans. To date, the bank has received a carbon footprint assessment for more than 1,600 agricultural loans totaling 14.2 billion rubles. This work allows the bank to analyze the effectiveness of the technologies used to reduce carbon emissions and is in line with the objective of achieving carbon neutrality on a regional scale.
The accumulated experience and unique expertise of Center-invest Bank in working with energy-efficient projects in the agro-industrial sector were highly praised by specialists at the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in Baku, where a new collective goal for climate finance was discussed.