Over 140 million people live in Russia, with almost 100 million living in multifamily buildings (MFBs); most of these buildings require energy efficiency retrofits. Housing sector in Russia currently accounts for approximately one quarter of all energy consumed in the country. Being the second largest consumer of energy in Russia (second to industry), there is an enormous potential for energy savings and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions reductions in the housing sector.
Since 2020 the World Bank is implementing Program “Improving Urban Housing Efficiency and Financing Facilitation for Building Modernization in the Russian Federation”. Key objective of the Program is to reduce GHG emissions in Russia by facilitating finance for energy efficient rehabilitation of the residential housing stock.
The Program is built on the results of a previous project aimed at increasing energy efficiency of the Russian residential sector implemented by the International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank Group) in 2010-2019. As its predecessor the Program is funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).
A systematic approach was adopted to achieve the stated objective. Program Team provides support in three areas – legislation enhancement, development of financing mechanisms and awareness raising and capacity building in implementation and financing of energy efficiency projects in the urban housing stock.
The Program is implemented on federal and subnational level and provides advisory and technical support to government authorities to enhance state policy and implementation of the energy efficiency measures in Russian residential housing sector.
In particular, the Program Team in close cooperation with State Corporation - the Housing and Communal Services Fund (ZhKH Fund) and other relevant federal ministries is working on development of necessary package of legislative measures and mechanisms for financing energy efficiency measures in MFBs.
At the regional level several subnational governments receive technical and advisory support aimed at awareness raising and capacity building of the state and municipal authorities, specialized organizations, and homeowners in the field of implementing and financing energy efficiency measures in MFBs.
The Program Team also works with banking community to develop lending product for financing energy efficiency measures in MFBs.
A systematic approach to implementation of the Program allows to provide significant support to stakeholders both on the supply side (legislation and development of financial products) and on the demand side (capacity building).
The Program Team has developed information materials on organizing and financing of energy efficient retrofits of MFBs. They can be found in the "Related Materials" section on the Russian language version of this page.