March 13 (SeeNews) - The World Bank said it has approved a 150 million euro ($161 million) loan to support Serbia’s efforts to achieve more sustainable, resilient and greener economic growth in public institutions.
The loan is part of the First Green Transition Programmatic Development Policy that the World Bank has prepared in collaboration with the French Development Agency (AFD) and the German Development Bank (KfW), the World Bank said in a statement last week.
"The Government of Serbia has taken a major step forward on the journey to making the green transition a reality and this budget support operation is designed to strengthen those efforts,’’ World Bank country manager for Serbia Nicola Pontara said.
The loan will support the country's fiscal management of the green agenda by making budgetary spending on environmental and climate-related activities more transparent.
The project will focus on accelerating clean energy transition through market reforms to state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), thus making it more sustainable through the faster adoption of renewables whilst protecting vulnerable consumers.
The loan will also aid Serbia in meeting EU standards on climate and environmental action, particularly in terms of waste and air quality management.
$ = 0.9324 euro