Greenpeace Calls on EIB to Denounce Fossil Fuel Investments

On Tuesday morning, Greenpeace activists organised a photo opportunity in front of the headquarters of the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg, ahead of the online meeting of the EIB Board of Directors, during which the draft climate roadmap will be discussed.

The EIB is due to complete its climate roadmap for the period 2021-25 by the end of 2020. The document will indicate how the bank intends to align its operations with the Paris climate agreement, which will have a major impact on the future of Europe's energy transition and on the EU's efforts to tackle the climate crisis. Greenpeace reported that, although the EIB appears to agree on the ban on expanding airports, a leak revealed that the bank is still planning to allow funding for climate-related activities such as the fossil fuel industry, highway expansion and industrial agriculture.

"It is unacceptable for the so-called climate bank to allow subsidies to such destructive sectors", commented Frank Thinnes, who is in charge of the climate and energy campaign of Greenpeace Luxembourg. "The EIB must immediately denounce any form of support for fossil fuels and align all its investments with the Paris agreement. This also underlies stronger and faster control over its intermediaries".

In order to raise awareness of this issue, Greenpeace activists displayed two large banners in front of the bank's head office in Luxembourg. The first depicted a planet above a euro-fuelled fire, thus symbolising the EIB's plans to continue investing in polluting and destructive industries, whilst the second asked the bank to change its policy with the message: EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK: STOP FUNDING THE CLIMATE CRISIS.

EIB representatives noticed and approached the activists. According to EIB communications director Matteo Maggiore: "It is important that an organisation like Greenpeace pushes institutions to become more ambitious". 

Greenpeace approved this statement, adding that "the directors of the EIB now have all the keys in hand to make the right decisions and show the world what it means to become a real climate bank".