>@EIB

"The EIB Group has a key role in tackling global challenges and supporting strategic investment in and outside the EU," European Investment Bank President Nadia Calviño said at the World Economic Forum this week.

Speaking at the annual gathering of global leaders from government, business, and civil society in Davos, Switzerland, Calviño underlined that the Group can help mobilise private and public investment for a range of strategic objectives from security and support for Ukraine to green transition and innovation.

“We have wonderful start-ups and companies that have developed the technologies that are going to allow Europe to rise up to the challenge. We can and we will do it: but for the climate transition we need scale,” Calviño said during the panel “Uniting Europe's Markets”.

She pointed out green finance could be a good place to restart the European Union’s stalled progress towards a unified capital market during the  discussion that featured European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe, Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Christian Sewing, and Sequoia Capital Managing Partner Roelof Botha.

The European Investment Bank pioneered green bonds, having issued the first one in 2007. Now the Bank could once again “play a catalytic role,” said Calviño.  

Speaking on the same panel, ECB President Lagarde said that current conditions could be favourable for the deepening of Europe’s capital markets union but the EU must act quickly. “The climate transition is an imperative, which means we must move fast,” she said.

Embracing the Davos’s theme this year of restoring trust – in the future, within societies, and among nations – President Calviño took advantage of the gathering to meet some key partners and stakeholders of the world’s largest multilateral development banks, including President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Odile Renaud-Basso and José Manuel Barroso, chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Calviño also met German Finance Minister Christian Lindner and the Finance Minister of Morocco, Nadia Fettah, as well as Breakthrough Energy Vice-President for Europe Ann Mettler and Executive Director Rodi Guidero.

President Calviño’s busy schedule also included meetings with Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives and secretary general of  the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group of 58 nations on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Calviño and Nasheed discussed unlocking financing for investments in climate mitigation and adaptation.