BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) sees a real scope for cooperation with Azerbaijan in creating a green energy hub, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Vice President and Corporate Secretary at AIIB said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
Cowper-Coles pointed out that green infrastructure is one of the Bank's thematic priorities alongside connectivity, technology-enabled infrastructure and mobilizing private capital.
"This means that, since July 2023, every new operation must be aligned with the Paris Agreement. We also committed that climate finance would account for half of our financing approvals by 2025 – and have far surpassed that. Our climate financing has now reached 71% of total approved financing," he said.
The AIIB VP noted that the Bank supports Azerbaijan’s goal of becoming a green energy hub because it aligns perfectly with its goals.
"The clearest example in Azerbaijan is the Banka and Bilasuvar solar project, with two plants totaling 760 megawatts, which we signed at COP29 in Baku in 2024. The USD160 million we provided was our first private-sector financing in the country. We worked with Masdar as developer and SOCAR Green as the local partner, alongside the Asian Development Bank and EBRD as co-financiers. The project qualifies as 100% climate mitigation finance, and is expected to eliminate about 757,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. We are also tackling together the harder problem of moving clean power across borders through the Caspian Green Energy Corridor. In April 2025 we signed a memorandum with the ADB and the governments of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to take forward the feasibility work on cross-border electricity trade. This project includes not only generation and transmission but also the market of green electricity – a veritable green energy hub. This is where we see real scope to work with Azerbaijan," he added.
Catalysing investment through standards and partnerships
Cowper-Coles pointed out that apart from financing, AIIB provides discipline and confidence for other investors and partners.
"Every project we finance is prepared and supervised against our Environmental and Social Framework, procured under international rules, and backed by an independent route for affected communities to raise concerns through our Project-affected People’s Mechanism. These safeguards help make each project bankable for other partners and lenders. A great example is the Banka and Bilasuvar solar project I mentioned. Our involvement and triple-A balance sheet helped bring the ADB and EBRD in as co-financiers, and gave private capital, through Masdar, the comfort to commit for the long term. That is the mobilization effect: our USD160 million is doing more than its face value because it crowds others in rather than crowding them out. For large and complex infrastructure, where the financing is long and the risks are real, that catalytic role is often the difference between a project that gets built and one that stays on paper," he added.
Connectivity and Azerbaijan’s role as a strategic partner
The VP noted that connectivity and regional cooperation are built into the Bank's mandate.
"We interpret them broadly. For us, supporting arailway rehabilitation or extension, a port expansion or a border-crossing construction means better and larger trade and travel, which bring regions closer together. The Middle Corridor, the route across the Caspian linking Asia and Europe, has moved up everyone’s agenda, and Azerbaijan sits squarely across it," he said.
Cowper-Coles believes that what makes Azerbaijan distinctive is the combination of geography and intent.
"The country has invested in its own ports, roads and railways – and it has a clear view of the regional role it wants to play. When President Ilham Aliyev witnessed the signing our joint declaration, he pointed specifically to the Middle Corridor, its railways, roads and ports, as well as to metro, water and sanitation, renewable energy and digitalization. The second pillar of the declaration, building the next generation of transport, energy and digital infrastructure to anchor Azerbaijan as a trade and logistics corridor, reflects exactly that. For a bank whose job is connectivity, a member that is itself a natural connector is a natural partner," he added.
A programmatic framework for long-term cooperation
"For most of our first decade we worked with Azerbaijan deal by deal. The joint declaration we signed in Tianjin last year moves us to a programmatic footing, and there is a clear governance logic to that. It anchors our support in the country’s own plans, in this case Azerbaijan’s 2030 National Priorities for Socio-Economic Development, rather than in a series of one-off transactions," said Cowper-Coles.
The VP noted that the declaration has three pillars: climate-resilient infrastructure that supports decarbonization and national climate goals; the next generation of transport, energy and digital infrastructure; and catalyzing of private investment through new financing models and stronger public-private partnerships.
"This framework brings more than just a list of separate projects. First of all, predictability, so that government and Bank can plan together over several years. It brings consistency of standards, because the same environmental, social and procurement rules apply across the whole program. And it brings accountability, because progress is measured against a shared set of objectives that our Board, on which Azerbaijan sits, can hold us to. It is, in short, a more mature way for a member and the Bank to work together, and it reflects how far this partnership has come," he explained.
A decade of AIIB–Azerbaijan partnership
Cowper-Coles noted that the Bank today has 111 approved members and is capitalized at USD100 billion, with a triple-A rating from all three major agencies and Azerbaijan has been part of that story from the first day.
"It is one of the 57 founding members and has been a shareholder and a partner ever since we started our operations in 2016. Azerbaijan therefore has an important voice in AIIB’s governance, which allows it to contribute to shaping the Bank’s direction and priorities as we continue to grow together," said the VP.
He recalled that the Bank's first investment in Azerbaijan came in 2016, a USD600 million loan for the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline, part of the Southern Gas Corridor.
"Since then, the relationship has broadened from energy into transport and, most recently, private-sector renewables. Last September, in Tianjin, the Bank and the Government signed a joint declaration on strategic cooperation witnessed by President Ilham Aliyev and our then-President, Jin Liqun. That is the clearest signal yet of where we stand: a decade of solid, project-by-project, work, and now a shared intention to do more, and do so more strategically," Cowper-Coles added.
