Luxembourg, 17 November 2021 – This morning, coinciding with a meeting of its Board of Directors, the European Investment Bank (EIB) received a surprise rebranding as Greenpeace activists used banners, signs and inflatable cubes to change the bank’s name into ‘European Greenwashing Bank’. Through this action, Greenpeace is denouncing EIB hypocrisy and greenwashing, as the bank continues to fund climate-killing projects and companies, while at the same time claiming it is doing its part to protect the climate.
The bank still finances climate-damaging activities such as fossil-gas projects under the Projects of Common Interest (PCI) [1] list and those related to existing gas infrastructure (e.g. the extension of a network). The EIB has failed to blacklist major polluters like fossil fuel utilities such as PGE in Poland, the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the country. It still funds motorway expansion, for example the A46 in Germany, which is destroying the centuries-old Dannenröder forest. The bank also supports industrial farming and is failing to audit around a third of all its financing that is channeled by financial intermediaries.
“How can the EIB claim to be the EU’s climate bank when it is still funding some of the dirtiest companies in Europe and supporting the destruction of a centuries-old forest to make space for a motorway? These climate wrecking projects and the bank’s greenwashing have to end now,” said Frank Thinnes, Climate and Energy Campaigner at Greenpeace Luxembourg. “The EIB, under President Werner Hoyer’s watch, is a public institution bound by the Paris climate agreement’s goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C. It has to put its money where its mouth is, close all loopholes allowing financing for major polluters, and do its part to stop the climate crisis. There is no excuse for the EIB to continue funding fossil fuels, motorway expansion, and industrial farming.”
Greenpeace warns that the EIB’s climate roadmap and recent announcements will not put an end to this, leaving many escape clauses for the bank to keep financing polluting projects and companies. If the EIB continues with business as usual, the consequences of the climate crisis that we are already experiencing, such as floods, droughts and fires, will only get worse.
Greenpeace calls on the EIB to fulfil its climate obligations and stop greenwashing. To start, it must stop funding fossil fuel projects, stop supporting carbon-emitting companies by imposing strict climate criteria on its clients, especially intermediaries, and revise its transport policy to end financing of motorways and highways.
Under the supervision of President Hoyer and Governors such as Luxembourg’s minister of finance Pierre Gramegna, the EIB must finally require its clients to have credible decarbonisation plans in place and implement an assessment mechanism to validate the effectiveness of such plans. “We call upon Pierre Gramegna to ensure that the EIB, the biggest multilateral financial institution in the world, truly aligns with the Paris Agreement,” said Frank Thinnes. “His active support for a clear and strong criteria for the EIB’s clients could contribute to transforming the EIB into a true sustainable role model for financial institutions.”
Notes:
[1] Projects related to security, competitiveness and securing energy needs