Pure Profit for Russia: Benefits of Responsible Finance

The purpose of this report is to serve as a post financial crisis handbook that will help both financiers and environmentalists in Russia to cooperate in establishing a ‘greener’ and less risky financial system in a similar manner to which this process is underway in other emerging markets such as China, Brazil and South Africa. The report provides an overview of the evolution of international mechanisms of environmental and social responsibility in the global financial sector, quantifies the scope of exposure of foreign and Russian financial institutions to environment-intensive sectors of the Russian economy, and concludes with recommendations regarding actions that might be implemented by both the Russian government and domestic financial institutions. The report has been prepared within the framework of the project ‘Integration of Environmental and Social Safeguards, Standards and Processes and the Climate Change Agenda in the Russian Finance Sector’ implemented by WWF-Russia and WWF-Germany with the financial assistance of the Federal Agency for the Environment (Umweltbundesamt/UBA) under the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), and with the support of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in collaboration with the Equator Principles Outreach Group for Russia.