EIB must not sacrifice social green transition for fossil fuel shareholders

Brussels - 14 November 2022

The European Investment Bank (EIB) must only finance companies which channel profits into fighting the climate crisis, and not fossil fuel polluters putting their shareholders ahead of people and planet, said NGOs from the Fossil Free EIB campaign in a briefing today (14 November).

Twenty-six NGOs from the Fossil Free EIB campaign released the briefing after the EIB decided to suspend its PATH Framework for energy projects. The Framework is a flawed but still significant part of the EIB’s plan to fully align itself with the Paris Agreement by 2025. The bank suspended the Framework less than two weeks before the beginning of COP27, sending a terrible sign to the international community about its commitment to limit climate change to 1.5℃.

Oil and gas majors are currently making historic profits. The International Energy Agency estimates that the fossil fuel industry will make $2 trillion in excess profits this year - more than enough to pay for the transition away from fossil fuels without needing public money. In the first six months of 2022 six European oil majors gave three times as much to shareholders then they planned to invest in green projects.

Frank Vanaerschot, Director of Counter Balance, said:“The EIB has chosen to favour shareholders of even the most polluting and profiteering oil majors over the European people impoverished by high energy prices. We can only solve both climate and energy crises by using the EIB’s public investment power to work with companies that stop new fossil fuel activities and put their own resources into a socially and environmentally just transition.”

The campaign demands that the EIB cease working with any company planning new fossil fuel exploration, extraction, mining, transmission or any similar infrastructure. Only companies investing more than half their profits into genuinely climate-aligned projects should be eligible for EIB support.

For more information please contact:

Paul Creeney, Media and Communications Officer, paul.creeney@counter-balance.org, +32 (0) 465 946 509

Notes to Editors

• Greenpeace will hold a protest today (14 November) outside the European Investment Bank, condemning the bank for backtracking on its pledge not to fund large polluters. Greenpeace activists will place a large banner outside the bank which reads “European Investment Bank: Stop Funding the Climate Crisis”, accompanied by two banners displaying the message: “European Greenwashing Bank”.