Supporting BGK, the Polish Development Bank, in the operationalisation of its sustainable socio-economic development mission

The Commission helped to provide BGK, the national promotional bank of Poland, with a clear action plan and set of guidelines to accelerate its sustainable finance transformation, which should result in more long-term investments taking environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into account. 

Context

Sustainable development is at the core of BGK mission. Operationalising this mission required the design of an all-encompassing sustainable finance action plan. While BGK had already started this journey and was working across multiple workstreams to operationalise its new mission, the objective of this project was to step back from this ongoing work and build a coherent sustainable finance action plan based on sustainable finance requirements including those of the EU Taxonomy. This work will help BGK both in its strategic planning efforts, as well as the establishment of a practical action plan aligned with the EU regulations and strategies.

Support delivered

• The project resulted in a sustainable finance action plan and a set of recommendations designed in close cooperation with BGK’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) team and BGK programme leads, with the objective of improving the operational delivery of BGK’s sustainable development strategy.
• BGK was provided with improved institutional capacity to comply with the latest sustainable finance regulatory requirements, and to design, develop and implement sustainable finance reforms within the institution. It aimed to equip BGK with the right skills and understanding to implement the EU Taxonomy, InvestEU Sustainability Proofing Guidance, and the Climate and Environmental Tracking Guidance.
• The activities carried out included an analysis and understanding of the compliance requirements linked to InvestEU (Sustainability Proofing and Climate Tracking), and the EU Taxonomy. The project further aimed to help BGK understand how to best implement these requirements via recommendations, guidelines, and training and capacity building activities.
• The project also resulted in the design of a detailed ESG impact framework reflecting best practice in this area.

Expected results

The project generated tangible impacts in terms of knowledge creation and operational changes within BGK, recognising the urgency to shift financial flows to address multiple environmental aims.