Greenpeace urges EIB to up efforts to meet climate targets

Greenpeace has called on Luxembourg's Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna to ensure that the European Investment Bank (EIB) meets its emissions targets under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The environmental campaign group wrote to Gramegna - who is also one of the governors of the Luxembourg-based bank - on Wednesday urging the institution to up its efforts to achieve the goals set in the international treaty.

The European Union, including its financial institutions, are bound to the terms of the agreement, which took effect in 2016 and aims to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit the global temperature increase during this century to 2 degrees.

In 2019, the EIB promised to align all of its financing activities with the principles and goals of the Paris Agreement by the end of last year, and said it would increase the share of its financing dedicated to climate action and environmental sustainability, with a goal of reaching 50% of its operations in 2025.

However, Greenpeace argues that since the agreement was signed, the EIB has invested €890 million in fossil gas projects and that the bank still supports fossil fuel-heavy companies and other major greenhouse gas emitters.

“Compared to its promises and claims, the EIB is greenwashing its climate commitments and thus the chances of reaching the objectives of the Paris Agreement,” the letter said. “This proves the bank is not yet a 'climate bank'."

The letter was written two days ahead of a meeting of the EIB board of governors which is scheduled to take place on Friday.

The board of governors is made up of the finance ministers from each of the 27 EU countries, who in turn represent the bank's shareholders and have a significant influence on the EIB's overall strategy and its investment policies, Greenpeace said.

In 2019 Luxembourg failed to support a decision to stop the EIB from funding fossil fuel projects, and was one of just six countries to abstain when the motion was adopted.

That decision meant that the EU bank agreed to boost its support for clean energy and committed itself to stop financing fossil fuel energy projects from December 2021.

The Luxembourg Times has contacted both the EIB and Luxembourg's Finance Ministry for comment.

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