Nordic states continue to back environmental development fund

This follows up the DKK 100 million of support provided to environmental projects in the region from 1996 to 1998 by the Nordic environmental financing company known as NEFCO. In the future, the fund will be called the Nordic Environmental Development Fund.

Following an independent assessment of this “soft financing” within the environmental sector in the neighbouring region, the experiences of the common Nordic efforts were considered to be positive. NEFCO moved swiftly, and by the end of 1998 had used almost all the money on 16 successful projects.

Among the projects that are being carried out are: an international project which focuses on a secure way for the Lepse, a cargo ship in Murmansk, to unload its containers of nuclear waste (DKK 10 million)(see previous story); an energy conservation program in north-western Russia and in Kalingrad (DKK 16 million); a cleaner technology project in north-western Russian (DKK 10 million) and a similar project in the Baltic region (DKK 5 million); and, in Poland, an ongoing irrigation project to reduce emissions into the Baltic (DKK 7 million).