The first fund of green investment may appear in Russia in the coming years

Russia's first fund of green investment may be set up in the coming years by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) of Russia together with one of the financial companies, the coordinator for Environmental Policy of the financial sector of WWF Julia Polonskaya said on Tuesday.

It may be a share investment fund (PIF) or a private equity fund that invests in specific projects such as venture projects. To set up the foundation we needed to do some research and choose a Russian partner. We are in preliminary talks, and I think that the foundation will be established in the next few years. Today, there are more and more market prerequisites appear for this - Polonskaya told RIA Novosti during the first Russian forum on environmental and socially responsible investing.

At the same time she noted that an important prerequisite for the establishment of the fund could be a launch of Russian stock market index of sustainable development, which could allocate the green securities.

Unfortunately, there are not many Russian stocks that could meet strict criteria of environmental responsibility, so we think about creating of a mixed investment fund meaning not only Russian companies, but BRICS and Eastern Europe countries.

Meanwhile, WWF of Austria has established two similar fund together with Erste-Sparinvest investment company - one puts shareholders’ money in green assets, another focuses on the climate change and invests in renewable energy companies.