Counter Balance have released our latest Activity Report detailing how we held European public finance to account in 2022. This included campaigning for public finance to clean up its act and stop supporting some of the world’s worst polluters, and for investments outside the EU to respect the human rights of communities affected by infrastructure projects. We also demanded that the European Investment Bank (EIB) stop hiding vital information on the financing it provides.
We exposed how the EIB is still fuelling fossil fuel consumption by handing out at least €7.4 billion in financing to fossil energy giants - including €2 billion in loans to companies still burning coal. Counter Balance also called out the EIB for relaxing the climate criteria which companies have to meet to receive support for renewable investments and criticised the EIB’s continued support for polluting highways in its new transport lending policy.
Counter Balance shone a light on how the EU Global Gateway - the European Commission’s overseas investment strategy - risks diverting development finance towards achieving the EU’s geopolitical goals and into the pockets of the private sector. We also detailed how EIB Global - the EIB’s new development branch - could switch from being a cosmetic change at the bank to a vehicle for helping create sustainable and equitable societies the world over.
The Activity Report also contains updates on the Counter Balance secretariat, and details financial information from the past year.
