Associate, Environmental Social Advisor - London, United Kingdom - European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Tom O´Connor

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Description
Requisition ID Office Country- United Kingdom- Office City- London- Division- Environment & Sustainability- Contract Type- Fixed Term- Contract Length- 2 years- Posting End Date- 21/06/2024
Purpose of Job
The Associate Environmental and Social Advisor-Sustainability Proofing works under the general guidance of the relevant Head of Sector.

They also support the Principal Environmental and Social Advisor-Sustainability Proofing working on the environment and social aspects of the project approvals processes, technical and policy assessments (Environmental and Social Proofing), monitoring and project-level negotiations required as part of the agreements the EBRD has signed with the European Commission and EU Member States under the InvestEU instrument and the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

The Associate is expected to work on a range of projects and tasks, often being responsible for straightforward projects, tasks and initiatives.

The Associate is also responsible for assessing these projects for their potential E&S risks and compliance with the EBRD's Environmental and Social Policy (ESP), with subsequent monitoring of Project's E&S performance.


Background


The EBRD has entered into a number of co-financing agreements with the European Commission and EU member states to support projects and programmes within the EBRD's EU countries of operation.

An agreement was signed in 2021 with the government of Greece to co-finance projects with resources from Greece's allocation from the RRF.

The EBRD has also signed an agreement with the European Commission to become an Implementing Partner of its InvestEU programme, covering all 12 EU member states that are EBRD countries of operation.

Other agreements are in development.


Both the European Commission and the EBRD wish to ensure that all projects supported are aligned with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and have appropriate climate, environmental and social safeguards.

In addition, all co-financing agreements will include a target for significant proportions of the co-financing to contribute actively towards climate and environmental goals.


The EBRD applies its own internal assessments and appraisals on additionally, policy and regulatory compliance, compliance with EBRD's ESP and attribution of finance to climate and environmental objectives.

EBRD also applies its own Paris Alignment assessments - all direct finance projects have been undergoing this assessment since June 2021, and regular assessment of intermediated finance projects will begin in 2022.

From the end of 2022, all projects that EBRD approves will need to be Paris aligned.

  • Policy checks, including analyses of the additionality that the EU component brings to the financing package, and of the market failures that it helps address.
  • Analysis of compliance with EU climate and environmental policy and legal requirements.
  • Assessment of fulfilment of a number of EU policy objectives and filling out of a scoreboard of indicators.
  • Completion of the EU's Sustainability Proofing process, which includes three components: Climate, Environmental and Social Proofing.
  • Calculation of projectlevel finance proportion contributing to climate and environmental objectives, assessed and reported according to the EU's climate and environmental tracking guidance.
  • Economic Analysis of projects where relative or absolute CO2 emissions are over a certain value.
Facts / Scale

  • Work on a range of projects, tasks and initiatives, often being responsible for more straightforward projects under InvestEU and RRF.
  • This role is critical in preventing occurrence of institutional liabilities of financial and reputational nature related to E&S impacts of Bank's transactions, country and sector policies and broader initiatives. In pursuing this objective this role supports and closely interacts with Clients, Banking, Office of General Counsel (OGC), CSD and EBRD Donor Co-Financing InvestEU team.
  • Support the environmental and social appraisal of approximately 30 more straightforward projects per year under InvestEU and RRF considering EUrelated approvals process and EBRD ESP.
  • Work together with Climate Proofing specialists as well ESD environmental, social and green finance specialists as part of the EUrelated approvals process. Where necessary manage consultants engaged to support such projects.
  • Design and conduct monitoring of environmental and social aspects for such projects together with ESD specialists in line with Sustainability Proofing Guidance and EBRD's Environmental and Social Policy, including associated reporting under InvestEU and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
  • Work with colleagues in managing the programming and data management of relevant donor funds together producing quarterly status updates. The main envisaged programmes are InvestEU and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
  • Participate in 23 environmental and social policy and metho

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