As the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development today closes the public consultation period on its upcoming energy strategy, a coalition of the largest ten European environmental organisations, the Green 10, is calling on the bank to phase out fossil fuels from its future lending, beginning with coal, and to rule out lending to risky energy sources, such as nuclear and shale gas.
A draft energy policy presented by the EBRD this summer indicates that the bank plans to continue investing in fossil fuels, including coal. Furthermore, the bank is not considering restricting its current lending to the nuclear sector. The EBRD is now also opening the door for the financing of shale gas.
The review of the EBRD’s energy strategy comes at a time when the negative effects of over-reliance on fossil fuels for the climate, the environment and human health have been broadly recognised. As a result, international financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank have recently introduced significant limitations to their coal lending, and EBRD shareholders like the US and the Nordic countries have said they would halt financing of coal abroad.
In this context, Green 10 asks of the EBRD not to buck the trend but instead to act responsibly and contribute to this global wave of progressive action towards decarbonisation by introducing strict Emission Performance Standards for energy related investments and a shadow carbon price.
Magda Stoczkiewicz, director of Friends of the Earth Europe said: “The EBRD must urgently move away from financing fossil fuels, and must not open up financing for new unconventional fossil fuels like shale gas. The bank has indicated it would be open to financing shale gas but these operations pose serious threats to the climate, our environment, our health and local communities. Instead of financing risky and costly fracking, scarce public resources would be better spent developing safe, clean renewables and energy savings which are in dire need of support across the EBRD’s region of operations.”
