On July 17, the stakeholder engagement on Phase 2 of the EIB Group Climate Bank Roadmap and Energy Sector Orientation took place. Even though we had meaningful discussions with the present EIB climate staff on some of our key concerns and recommendations, the event fell short of enabling meaningful civil society participation, as it was scheduled in the middle of the summer and announced with very short notice, severely limiting attendance. In addition, the deadline for submitting written input, announced during the event, left many civil society organisations unable to contribute. Finally, Counter Balance, during the event and in the Joint CSOs Position, called for the EIB to provide sufficient space for civil society to contribute to the review of the Climate Bank Roadmap.
Counter Balance, together with seven other CSOs, submitted a Joint Position outlining the following key recommendations to the EIB:
- Focus the climate strategy on the advantages of public finance and less on derisking the private sector, prioritising a just transformation across all climate finance and maximise public benefits.
- Improve the climate finance methodology and stop financing fossil and other highly polluting activities, while focusing on proven and resource efficient use of technologies.
- Ensure climate finance stops funding fossil giants and ensure supported companies and financial intermediaries have strong and binding transition plans by investing in proven clean technologies and adopting strong social standards.
- Increase climate environmental finance targets, especially in areas such as adaptation finance, where the Bank is missing its targets.
- Strengthen the protection of biodiversity and forestry.
At this stage, the EIB’s climate roadmap still feels far from the ambition it claims to represent. If the Bank wants to be credible about being a genuine Climate Bank, it should put less emphasis on protecting private investors without strong social and environmental conditions and fully recognising and committing to the key role of the public sector in strong action for a just transformation.
Without clear steps to close loopholes in the PATH Framework that allowed public money to flow to fossil fuel companies, enforce robust transition plans, and strengthen its support for adaptation and biodiversity, its commitments will remain out of touch with the scale of today’s environmental and climate challenges.
