The Russia-led Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) has won the prestigious international Environmental Finance's 2021 IMPACT Award in the energy category for the Atyrau street lighting project in Kazakhstan.

The project, a public-private partnership initiative, was completed in April. It saw a new lighting network brought to 238 streets in the Kazakh oil capital Atyrau along with the Atyrau–Aktobe highway. The lighting covers a total length of 242,620 metres. The EDB extended KZT8bn ($18.7mn) for the development and implementation of the project. Batys Transit carried out the project.

The new lighting is made up of an automated outdoor lighting control system and LED lamps, helping to reduce maintenance costs by 36% and annual carbon dioxide emissions by 0.6828 tonnes.

The new street lighting network has also helped to decrease the number of road accidents in Atyrau in the evening and at night by 44%. 

The energy costs of street lighting have been cut by 80% and maintenance costs by 36%. 

"The construction of the street lighting network in Atyrau has had a major environmental and social impact on life throughout the city. I am glad that the project has now been recognised internationally. Financing green energy projects is among the Bank's priorities and is in line with the ESG approaches enshrined in its new strategy. Over the past five years, we have extended significant financial support for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and waste management projects. The total investment has exceeded US $650 million," said Amangeldy Issenov, vice chairman of the EDB management board.