Supporting environmental initiatives by Russian commercial banks within the framework of implementing the principles of environmental, social and corporate responsibility
E.V. Karanina, V.N. Pugach, A.V. Kotandzhyan
Section: Ecology and climate change
This article analyzes the implementation of environmental, social, and corporate responsibility (ESG) principles in the activities of the country’s commercial banks, and examines examples and indicators of the country’s largest banks regarding the implementation of “green” economy principles through the prism of ESG banking development. The aim of this article is to identify and analyze the main problems of implementing an ESG strategy in the Russian banking sector, as well as the possibility of assessing the level of ESG principles penetration in the commercial banks activities in the context of maintaining modern environmental approaches to organizing financial and economic activities. Reports on the sustainable development of Russian large commercial banks, as well as scientific and analytical publications on the implementation of the “green” economy principles were used as an information base for the analysis. Recently, the implementation of sustainable development goals agenda has become increasingly relevant. This creates challenges for the corporate sector. International companies are actively implementing ESG principles in their operations and recognize the importance of ESG risk management. Russian ESG agenda attracted public attention after the announcement of the EU cross-border carbon regulation project. In 2021, there was an active development of ESG practices and responsible financing instruments in Russia. In May 2020 the European Central Bank and the Central Bank of Russia announced a new position and plans for regulating and supervising the ESG risks in the financial activities process. Thus, the “Green” Economy Regulatory Group (GERG) was created. Supervisory authorities regulate the GERG’s activities. The GERG issued a guide on sustainable and responsible investment, as well as banking portfolios management. At the same time, it is important to find an optimal balance between the areas of the country’s financial and environmental policies, which would promote the implementation of the interests in the noted areas without compromising one of them. There is a need to monitor the results of ESG-principles implementation, to unify the model for assessing indicators, as well as to determining the role of the state and the banking sector in a “green” economy development.
Keywords: environmental, social and corporate responsibility (ESG), ESG principles, ESG banking, ESG strategy, environmental principles, sustainable development of the banking sector, “green” economy
Article published in number 1 for 2026 DOI: 10.25750/1995-4301-2026-1-227-236
ISSN 1995-4301
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