The Bank of Albania, in cooperation with the European Investment Bank (EIB), held a technical and inter-institutional workshop on Wednesday in the framework of the drafting of the “Green Taxonomy” of Albania, which is a classification system that determines which economic activities can be considered “sustainable from an environmental perspective”.

The activity was organized in function of the EIB technical assistance program for the greening of financial systems and constitutes an important step towards building a sustainable framework for the orientation of investments in the Albanian economy.

The Green Taxonomy aims to increase transparency in the financial market, to orient capital towards activities that support sustainable development, and to contribute to strengthening financial stability in a long-term perspective.

The workshop brought together representatives of public institutions, international organizations, the financial sector, the business community, and environmental organizations, with the aim of presenting the first draft of the Green Taxonomy.

The activity was opened by the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Albania, Natasha Ahmetaj, who emphasized the importance of drafting the Green Taxonomy as a key instrument for orienting investments towards sustainable activities and for harmonizing the development standards of the Albanian economy with the standards of the European Union.

She underlined the close inter-institutional cooperation, with the support of the European Investment Bank, in drafting the first draft, as well as the role of this process in shaping the climate information architecture, strengthening financial stability, and compliance with national climate and environmental objectives.

The Deputy Governor stated that this workshop aims to serve as a consultation platform for the first draft of the Green Taxonomy, collecting technical comments from all interested parties, in order to improve and implement it in practice.

Ahmetaj emphasized that the Bank of Albania remains committed to supporting green financing in the country's economy in the spirit of the Paris Agreement and in accordance with the objective of financial stability. The successful completion of this project fulfills one of the requirements of Albania's EU integration process.

The activity was held in two sessions in the form of a round table. During the sessions, the main concepts of the taxonomy, the technical criteria for the classification of economic activities, as well as the needs for their adaptation to the Albanian context and approximation with European Union standards were presented.

The aim of the consultation process was to finalize the document and formalize inter-institutional cooperation through a Memorandum of Understanding, as a basis for the further implementation of the taxonomy in Albania.