Oil Change International has been pushing the European Investment Bank (EIB) to end its fossil fuel finance for years. Now we’ve got big news! Thanks to activists' emails and actions, the EIB announced a draft policy last Friday that would phase out all fossil fuel finance by the end of 2020!
The draft policy states that the Bank will phase out support to energy projects reliant on fossil fuels, including production, infrastructure, and power generation or heat based on fossil fuels. Additionally, the policy will apply to both direct and indirect investments – a huge step in aligning its entire energy portfolio with the Paris Agreement, and a big step forward that builds on the momentum of the World Bank’s 2017 commitment to end direct financing for upstream oil and gas.
But the fight isn’t over: This ambitious policy still needs to be approved by the member state representatives who make up the EIB’s Board of Directors, and we can’t let them water it down. We’ve come this far and now we just need to take this ambitious policy across the finish line.
This draft policy represents a tremendous shift. Between 2013 and 2018, the EIB – the world’s largest multilateral lender – averaged almost €2.5 billion per year in finance for oil, gas, and coal. In response, supporters like you sent hundreds of thousands of messages to EIB Directors, Governors, and Management Committee members, urging the Bank to ensure that its new energy lending policy criteria exclude financing of fossil fuels. And it worked!
Now we need your help again to urge the governments behind the EIB to take up this proposal and end the Bank’s handouts to the fossil fuel industry. Tell the EIB Board of Directors to step up their climate ambition and pass this world-leading policy that would stop funding fossils.
We will not stop until our governments do all that is required to fight the climate crisis at the scale that it deserves – including ending all forms of government support for fossil fuels and implementing a just transition away from coal, oil, and gas.
- Alex Doukas, Stop Funding Fossils Lead Analyst Oil Change International
But the fight isn’t over: This ambitious policy still needs to be approved by the member state representatives who make up the EIB’s Board of Directors, and we can’t let them water it down. We’ve come this far and now we just need to take this ambitious policy across the finish line.
This draft policy represents a tremendous shift. Between 2013 and 2018, the EIB – the world’s largest multilateral lender – averaged almost €2.5 billion per year in finance for oil, gas, and coal. In response, supporters like you sent hundreds of thousands of messages to EIB Directors, Governors, and Management Committee members, urging the Bank to ensure that its new energy lending policy criteria exclude financing of fossil fuels. And it worked!
Now we need your help again to urge the governments behind the EIB to take up this proposal and end the Bank’s handouts to the fossil fuel industry. Tell the EIB Board of Directors to step up their climate ambition and pass this world-leading policy that would stop funding fossils.
We will not stop until our governments do all that is required to fight the climate crisis at the scale that it deserves – including ending all forms of government support for fossil fuels and implementing a just transition away from coal, oil, and gas.
- Alex Doukas, Stop Funding Fossils Lead Analyst Oil Change International
More Information:
European Investment Bank Will Stop Funding Fossil Fuel Projects by the End of 2020 - EcoWatch, Jul. 29, 2019
European Investment Bank proposes end to fossil fuel lending - Reuters, JULY 26, 2019
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