During the plenary session (9-10 October 2019) of the European Parliament in Brussels, MEPs debate with Werner HOYER, President of the European Investment Bank, on measures to make EU investments more environmentally-friendly. Statements by Carlos MOEDAS, Member of the EC in charge of Research, Science and Innovation, Werner HOYER, EIB President, Sirpa PIETIKÄINEN (EPP, FI), Jonás FERNÁNDEZ (S&D, ES), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL).

Brussels

plenary session

EICKHOUT, Bas (Greens/EFA, NL)

economic growth (T)

FERNÁNDEZ, Jonás (S&D, ES)

HOYER, Werner (DE)

MOEDAS, Carlos (PT, EC)

PIETIKÄINEN, Sirpa (EPP, FI)

Greening the European Investment Bank: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Carlos MOEDAS, Member of the EC in charge of Research, Science and Innovation, We have achieved a lot but a lot more has to be done to achieve the 2030 climate and energy targets in our long term goal of carbon neutral Europe by 2050. Our investments in climate and environmental projects in the next decade will need to grow considerably. We need up to 290 billion of additional investments per year from energy efficiency to cleaner transport in the infrastructure. Those investments are at a large extent of private nature and we need to mobilise private finance for those investments.

SOUNDBITE (English), Carlos MOEDAS, Member of the EC in charge of Research, Science and Innovation, Today the EIB is the largest multilateral provider of climate finance worldwide committing at least 25 percent of its investment to climate change mitigation. Already in 2007 the EIB issued the first world green bond labelled the climate awareness bond and in September 2013 the first sustainable awareness bond. The EIB, the largest issuer of green bonds will do more. Twenty three billion raised across 11 countries of which four billion raised last year alone. So what am I saying. I'm saying that de facto Mr President, you are the European Union's climate bank.

SOUNDBITE (English), Werner HOYER, EIB President, The last time average temperatures lay four degrees centigrade below pre-industrial levels, Brussels lay buried beneath several kilometres of ice. You can imagine what four degrees hotter might mean. In such a scenario heatwaves would become the norm. An average July day Europe would see temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius. So drought forest, fires crop failures, food shortages and disease pandemics would become commonplace events, potentially displacing millions of people

SOUNDBITE (English), Carlos MOEDAS, Member of the EC in charge of Research, Science and Innovation, We are presently finalizing our increased ambition for 2030 climate action and environmental sustainability and our approach builds around three pillars. 1) An increase in our own financing last year, nearly 30 percent of the EIB's new commitments worldwide were dedicated to climate and environmental goals. I would like the EIB to be much bolder and aim for 50 percent for these activities by 2025. 2) A commitment to growth sustainable finance from billions to trillions<em> </em>

SOUNDBITE (English), Werner HOYER, EIB President, Alignment with the Paris Agreement will determine a change in the EIB group's policies and actions starting with a pledge to phase out energy projects that depend on fossil fuels. This is my proposal.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sirpa PIETIK&#196;INEN (EPP, FI), But I would like to raise the bar much faster and much higher. Yes of course you could be very proud and you should be proud of the fact that over 20 percent almost 30 percent of the investments are climate neutral and sustainable. But let's take it the other way. That means that over 70 percent of the investments are not. And that is the ambition level.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Jon&#225;s FERN&#193;NDEZ (S&amp;D, ES), The whole European Union, all institutions have to stand shoulder to shoulder in order to make sure that we honour the Paris agreement.. But we have to pay particular attention to those regions that as the EIB said could find it difficult during the de-carbonisation process. So the transition has to be a just transition.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), If you are serious about a climate bank you should be serious about the energy lending policies: no financing to fossil fuels.<em> </em>