The Project will support a number of different sponsors. These will be identified and disclosed under individual investment agreements.

The Project is co-financed by the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy, the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and by the Global Environemtal Facility (GEF). This SPI covers only the GEF co-financing piece of $4.7 million, which, in turn, consists of two components: (1) an advisory component of $1.3 million and (2) an investment component of $3.4 million indented to be channeled through a risk-sharing vehicle that the Project will be developing jointly with the IFC Investment department. The amount of IFC invesment is to be determinted but notionally is anticipated to be $50 million over a five-year period. These investments will be made through financial institutions for further on-lending to finance energy efficient renovations of multi-family buildings in Russia.

All work will be carried out in the Russian Federation with both Russian and international stakeholders, sponsors, and financial institutions. All anticipated future investments will be to clients with projects in the Russian Federation.

Successful implementation of the Project is expected to lead to avoidance of approximately 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 over the lifetime of the investments enabled by this Project (see next section).

The overall environmental goal of the proposed advisory Project is to reduce GHG emissions in the Russian multi-family block houses by overcoming barriers to getting access to finance for energy efficiency repair and renovation of common areas in multi-family buildings. Multi-family building common area renovations represent the most underserved segment of the market by financial intermediaries, even though it represents most of the potential for energy savings in the residential sector. Banks' hesitation in lending to this sector is often rooted in the perceived credit risk arising from the limited availability of collateral for the financing of commonly-owned areas as well as general lack of familiarity with the sector. Through the proposed Project, IFC, together with EBRD, will play a catalytic role in developing the market for residential energy efficiency in Russia. While addressing legal and regulatory obstacles, hindering private sector finance in the sector, the Project will also work on developing innovative financing structures to mitigate such risks and ultimately to enable commercial financing of energy efficient refurbishment of multi-family block houses in Russia. The specific anticipated impacts from the Project include: 2.5 million tons of CO2 emissions avoided as a result of the investments facilitated by the Project by October 2015 (end of Project) in residential energy efficiency (over an assumed lifetime of 20 years). US$ 134 million of investments in residential energy efficiency facilitated by the Project by the Project-end. 1,500 of multifamily block houses in Russia reducing energy consumption 419-628 GWh of total energy saved (GWh/yr) by Project-end in 2015

Where IFC invests in projects directly, or also in risk sharing facilities with FIs, IFC will review the environmental and social risks of the projects, and as applicable, the capacity of the FIs to manage social and environmental risks associated with the portfolio of residential energy efficiency projects to be supported. IFC applies environmental and social performance standards to all the projects it finances in order to minimize their impact on the environment and on affected communities. Where necessary, IFC will also require the FIs to establish a Social & Environmental Management System (SEMS) to screen investments against national laws and, if applicable, the IFC Performance Standards.