Role: The Equator Principles (EPs) is a risk management framework, adopted by financial institutions, for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risk in projects and is primarily intended to provide a minimum standard for due diligence to support responsible risk decision-making. This website contains all the relevant documentation to describe the principles and associated methodology. Currently 90 Equator Principles Financial Institutions (EPFIs) in 37 countries have officially adopted the EPs, covering over 70 percent of international Project Finance debt in emerging markets. EPFIs commit to implementing the EP in their internal environmental and social policies, procedures and standards for financing projects and will not provide Project Finance or Project-Related Corporate Loans to projects where the client will not, or is unable to, comply with the EP. While the EP are not intended to be applied retroactively, EPFIs apply them to the expansion or upgrade of an existing project where changes in scale or scope may create significant environmental and social risks and impacts, or significantly change the nature or degree of an existing impact. The EPs have also helped spur the development of other responsible environmental and social management practices in the financial sector and banking industry (for example, Carbon Principles in the US, Climate Principles worldwide) and have provided a platform for engagement with a broad range of interested stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), clients and industry bodies.