ST. PETERSBURG. July 5. /TASS/. The Russian economy may sustain the damage totaling up to 12 trillion rubles ($134.7 bln) due to climatic risks alone, First Deputy CEO of Sberbank Alexander Vedyakhin told TASS on the sidelines of the Financial Congress of the Bank of Russia.

"According to our analytical data, the damage to the Russian economy by 2030 may climb to 12 trillion rubles due to climatic risks alone. Losses may stand at 5-6% of GDP for certain regions. These are huge figures, high money," the banker said.

The ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) agenda is changing and the focus is on taking into account specific features in Russia and national goals, Vedyakhin noted. "Sber is now reconsidering approaches to ESG. We are working on making these approaches as specific as possible. We are analyzing concrete risks related to the ESG agenda, whether they affect a specific plant and how, and what it needs to do in order to prevent risks," he added.

Sber is already restructuring major loans facing climatic risks, the senior executive stressed. "That is, there is already a delay with the timeframe, an escalation of budgets on this topic, measured at billions, sometimes at dozens of billions of rubles. We will prompt our clients what to do in order to mitigate risks related to the ESG agenda. Certainly, this will be the concrete effort with each specific client," he noted.

The Financial Congress of the Bank of Russia is the Russia’s largest annual international financial forum. TASS is the general information partner of the congress.