Due to “loopholes” in its new energy lending policy, the European Investment Bank (EIB) risks continuing to finance fossil fuels “through the back door”, the NGO Counter Balance said on Thursday 30 July in a blog post based on one of its reports published in June.
Thus, while it welcomes the institution’s “considerable progress” to become the ‘European Climate Bank’ (see EUROPE 12370/11) by excluding most fossil fuel subsidies (including gas) by 2021, the NGO points out “three important exceptions that could compromise” the EIB’s climate ambitions.
Firstly, the fact that the Bank has decided to retain the possibility of approving, until the end of 2021, any gas infrastructure project on the EU’s fourth list of ‘projects of common interest’ (PCIs) (see EUROPE 12406/7), a list which has also been widely criticised by environmental NGOs and some MEPs (see EUROPE 12417/7 – 12408/23).
The second loophole, according to Counter Balance is the EIB’s intention to finance gas projects “which have as their purpose the transport of low-carbon gases”. This is problematic, according to the NGO, because “both the benefit for the climate and the economic potential of these low carbon gases are uncertain”.
The organisation is also concerned about the lack of an accepted definition, or set of criteria, for determining which gases are considered low carbon and which are not, for example, by highlighting the lack of consideration of methane leaks associated with these gases.
Finally, the third exception pointed out is that the EIB’s new energy policy still allows the financing of power generation projects that emit less than 250 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour over their economic life. Counter Balance considers this to be an “extremely high” threshold which may allow gas projects to benefit from EIB loans.
See the Counter Balance report: https://bit.ly/33bg4aC (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)