Today the EU Member States, who are the owners of the European Investment Bank, voted in favour of a new energy lending policy which would considerably limit loans to fossil fuel projects.
In July, the European Investment Bank (EIB) presented an ambitious draft energy lending policy that would phase out most financing of fossil fuels including fossil gas by the end of 2020.
However, since the presentation of the first draft, several Member States including Germany, but also the European Commission, succeeded to introduce more loopholes into the energy lending policy adopted today, which would allow the bank to continue to finance some fossil gas projects still until 2021.*
In reaction to the outcome, Markus Trilling, finance and subsidies policy coordinator at Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe said:
“With today’s decision to greatly limit lending for fossil fuel projects, the EIB is taking a first step to become the EU’s climate bank as promised by the European Commission’s president elect Ursula von der Leyen. This is also a clear call for all EU funds to follow suit and rule out all activities that worsen climate change from funding possibilities.”
“For the EIB to become the EU’s climate bank it will also need to look beyond energy and soon adopt a climate strategy which puts climate neutrality at the heart of all its operations.”
ENDS
Contact:
Nicolas Derobert, CAN Europe Communications Coordinator, nicolas@caneurope.org, +32 483 62 18 88
Note to editors:
* The EIB will continue loans only to those fossil gas projects that are listed as the so-called EU Projects of Common Interest (PCI).
Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe is Europe’s leading NGO coalition fighting dangerous climate change. With over 160 member organisations from 35 European countries, representing over 1.700 NGOs and more than 47 million citizens, CAN Europe promotes sustainable climate, energy and development policies throughout Europe.
