State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are often overlooked as key players in the fight against climate change. To fully tap their potential, policymakers gathered at the Vienna Development Knowledge Center’s inaugural event to share experiences – and drive progress – in this pivotal area of economic governance and green public financial management.
During the collaborative March 17, 2025 workshop, participants – largely from developing countries in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) – heard from experts and discussed ways to more proactively and strategically ramp up the role of SOEs in climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
At-risk heavyweights
As major players in the global economy, a quarter of the world’s largest companies are state-owned. Often, SOEs have a hefty carbon footprint and by one estimate, account for 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, preliminary findings of a new World Bank analysis show that in non-European Union countries in ECA, SOEs are responsible for more than 45 percent of emissions, with country-specific results ranging from less than 5 percent – to more than 80 percent.
Since the region’s SOEs are often found in critical infrastructure sectors, they can also be highly exposed to climate change-related extreme weather events such as flooding. And this could result in major costs and the literal washing away of assets.
Advancing climate action
During a series of interactive panels, representatives from Croatia, Georgia, Lithuania, Montenegro and Norway, among others, showcased their countries’ experiences with SOE reform aimed at internalizing and accelerating national climate change objectives. Among the issues addressed: balancing compliance and risk management with a greater focus on sustainability reporting, centralizing ownership functions, enhanced corporate governance, as well as green public financial management more generally.
With countries at different stages of SOE reform, the detailed discussions and subsequent audience follow-ups highlighted the interest in, and value of, peer-to-peer input and knowledge-sharing.
This, in turn, underscored the timeliness of the new Vienna Development Knowledge Center, which, as a partnership initiative, was formally launched during the workshop attended by World Bank ECA Vice President Antonella Bassani and Elisabeth Gruber, Director for the Department of International Financial Institutions at Austria’s Ministry of Finance.
As the first Vienna Development Knowledge Center activity in the area of Economic Governance, the event concluded with the launch of an SOE Community of Practice. This community aims to foster ongoing knowledge exchange among SOE policymakers and reformers, ultimately improving SOE performance and climate action across the region.
The workshop took place on the sidelines of the World Bank’s 2025 Ministerial Conference on Financial and Sustainability Reporting Reforms: Navigating Green and Digital Agendas.