EIB plans climate strategy overhaul

21 January 2015, ENDS

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will announce a new climate strategy before the Paris climate conference, it said this week as it launched a consultation on how to improve climate-related lending.

Respondents are asked whether the bank’s current strategy, which aims to provide at least 25% of its €72bn annual lending to climate mitigation and adaptation projects, is fit for purpose.

Over 2009-13, sustainable transport received the biggest share of the EIB’s dedicated climate lending at 39%, followed by renewable energy projects at 29% and research, development and innovation at 17%.

For green group CEE Bankwatch, the EIB’s approach to date is deeply problematic as it keeps climate lending in a silo. The rest of the bank’s activities still pour money into climate-damaging infrastructure projects including pipelines, highways and airports, said Kuba Gogolewski of NGO CEE Bankwatch.

The 25% strategy prevents assessment of whether the EIB’s overall portfolio is compatible with the EU’s long-term climate goals, Mr Gogolewski said. NGOs have long criticised the EIB for failing to consider the cumulative climate impacts of infrastructure projects it finances, such as roads.

The EIB’s consultation asks whether integrating a carbon price into investment decisions adequately deals with the risk of ‘carbon lock-in’ – the construction of high-carbon facilities that will last a long time.

The bank is also seeking views on how to improve the energy efficiency and climate resilience of supported projects, and on the best way to help energy-intensive industries invest in lower carbon industrial processes.

The EIB’s current climate strategy includes an emissions performance s tandard for fossil fuel power projects that has ruled out support for the most polluting coal power plants. It also incorporates a calculation of a project’s greenhouse gas emissions into the economic appraisal of projects.

The consultation runs until mid-March.

/susanna.williams@haymarket.com/

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