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To: Finance ministers of the EU member states, and Members of the Board of the European Investment Bank

Petition text:

Show courage and real climate leadership, ensure that the new rules on energy finance by the European Investment Bank are fit for the age of climate urgency! We ask that the Bank you lead:

• Ends all financing and lending to fossil fuels, in Europe and beyond,
• Radically increases financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy, with a clear priority to boost small-scale and community-led decentralised renewable energy projects.

Why does this matter?

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the world’s biggest multilateral public bank. Each year it invests billions of euros of public EU money. Its decisions on where this money flows can shape entire economies.

That’s why the EIB’s new “Energy Lending Policy” [1], which defines who can benefit from the Bank’s loans and guarantees, could be a breakthrough for the energy transition Europe urgently needs to address the climate crisis.

Just a few weeks ago, the Bank published a new draft lending policy, which proposes to phase out all loans to coal, oil and fossil gas projects. 

It’s a huge deal. The Bank’s shift away from coal and gas, and towards more small-scale renewables and energy efficiency, could genuinely help set Europe, and the world, on the right path to fight climate change.

Now, the Bank’s Board of Directors, instructed by the finance ministers of the EU, needs to give its approval to this draft policy. Our national finance ministers are the people with the power to make this breakthrough official - or water down the new policy and lose this historic chance to power the green energy transition we need. 

It’s crucial that the politicians follow the EIB’s climate leadership and support of the new Energy Lending Policy. Some ministers have already come forward as allies, and some will surely oppose the exclusion of fossil fuels. 

The decision on the new Energy Lending Policy could already happen during the Board meeting on the 14th of November. It’s going to be a close call. That’s why it’s so important that we raise the pressure now, building huge and vocal public support for the new, Fossil Free face of the EIB. If we succeed, it will be much harder for the undecided Directors to oppose this new lending policy - or they risk losing face.

We know that public pressure works, because it has worked before. The EIB already admitted it [2]: it was our Fossil Free campaign, our petition, our participation in public consultations, and finally our action at their doorstep which helped push them to exclude all fossil finance in their draft policy. We need to use this power once again. This is the last stretch!

There’s no time to waste, so take action right now. Sign the petition, and follow the next steps to raise the pressure even higher!

[1] EIB energy lending policy: Supporting the energy transformation.

[2] EIB on Twitter