A review of EIB’s Energy Lending Criteria

Policy comments    |    28 March 2019

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The review of Energy Lending Criteria gives the bank the opportunity to align its energy financing with the Paris Agreement and catch up with the rapid developments in the clean energy sector, in order to provide the necessary financial boost for the deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency. To this end, the EIB needs to shift its funds from fossil fuels to renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, in particular for small-scale, people-owned and controlled, decentralised projects. In particular, the review will be a good opportunity for the EIB to:

• Avoid the risk of locking in a fossil fuels-future by explicitly committing to end any kind of financing for this sector
• Adopt the energy efficiency first principle to ensure that the projects it finances would make sense in an energy efficient scenario
• Set its new Emission Performance Standard level at 100 g CO2/kWh in order to send a strong signal to both power industry and investors
• Make financing conditional on company-level decarbonisation plans
• Strengthen efforts to diversify the location of its renewable energy projects across different regions within EU and beyond
• Prioritise financial solutions for smaller, decentralised renewables projects
• Strengthen efforts to diversify the location of energy efficiency investments, in particular by smaller companies, municipalities, regions and individuals across different regions within EU and beyond
• Give special attention to social and environmental sustainability of renewables, in particular for the hydropower sector