The European Investment Bank (EIB) has today failed to agree a new energy lending policy that proposed to end its financing of fossil fuel projects from 2020.
Voting on the policy was expected to take place in Luxembourg today at the meeting of the Bank’s board, made up of representatives from every EU member state, but the decision has for the second time been postponed, likely to November.
The policy proposed by the director of the Bank was to ‘phase out support to energy projects reliant on fossil fuels’; but Friends of the Earth Europe understands that Germany and the European Commission have been resisting a fossil free policy, with a number of loopholes being added to the draft text.
Colin Roche, fossil free campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said:
“It’s extremely concerning to see the European Investment Bank has today failed to agree to stop lending to climate-killing fossil fuels. The climate emergency has no room for such dithering. Just days after the largest ever demonstrations for climate action, EU member states like Germany must ditch these risky polluting fossil fuel projects and get behind a fossil-free ‘climate bank’ now.”
Just days since the largest ever demonstrations for #climate action – what is there to discuss about ending our dependency on fossil fuels @EIB? #FossilFreeEIB https://t.co/xqcJG68ngC @OlafScholz https://t.co/QN02MDvmxt
— Friends of the Earth (@foeeurope) October 15, 2019
