The OeKB Environmental Assessment Procedure was established on the basis of the Common Approaches on Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits. These were worked out by the OECD Working Party on Export Credits and Credit Guarantees (ECG) and were adopted by the OECD Council in December 2003 and updated on 12 June 2007.
Objective
The procedure should be a simple, clear and efficient process for reviewing the best available environmental information on a timely basis. The concise information given in this paper should enable exporters and sponsors to better predict the type and amount of documentation and timeframe required for the assessment.
To facilitate the information exchange at an international level both with OECD and all other parties involved in the project (e.g. other ECAs, international consultants, host countries, civil society organisations) documentation will be in English as appropriate.
In order to avoid duplicate work with other parties, OeKB is ready to work together with other ECAs as well as IFIs (International Financial Institutions) and commercial banks (e.g. Equator Principles Financial Institutions [EPFIs]) and use common documentation and standards in the assessment as far as possible.
According to the Environmental Policy, positive environmental and social impacts will also be taken into account in the overall evaluation of the project.
Scope
Being in line with the recommendation of the OECD concerning common approaches on environment and officially supported export credits, OeKB’s environmental assessment procedure will focus on export credits for projects and project related goods and services with a repayment period of two years or more.
Projects involving tied-aid credits will be assessed separately under this procedure only to the extent necessary, as environmental and social issues are taken into account in line with the Helsinki-procedure by assessing the aid quality according to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC)'s Guidelines.
It should be noted that as a matter of principle OeKB scrutinises all applications for capital goods transactions with respect to obvious significant negative environmental impacts.
Summary of the Assessment Procedure