Responsible and Sustainable Investment
How the EIB Group finances a sustainable future
We strive to improve people’s lives by providing finance and expertise for operations that support sustainable development in Europe and beyond. Sustainable investment and lending goes hand in hand with the technical assistance and advice that is often necessary to make financing a success for all stakeholders. Sustainability is also a guiding principle in our borrowing business where we make financially attractive and environmentally beneficial products available to investors in the bond market.
Responsible and inclusive lending and investing
Lending is the EIB’s principal activity. We lend and provide investments for clients of all sizes to support sustainable growth and jobs. We are often instrumental in attracting other investors. We offer a variety of tools to help clients blend our financing with additional sources of investment. We focus on four public policy goals: innovation and skills, small and medium-sized enterprises, infrastructure, and the environment, combined with our two cross-cutting objectives: climate action and cohesion/regional integration.
Advisory and Technical Assistance
Advisory services complement the EIB’s lending activity and form an integral part of our ‘lending, blending and advising’ strategy. We make technical and financial expertise available to our clients to develop and implement investment projects and programmes, and to improve institutional and regulatory frameworks. When complementing EIB loans, advisory services strengthen the economic and technical foundations of an investment and catalyse funding from other sources.
Responsible and sustainable borrowing
The EIB’s financing operations are funded by issuing bonds in international capital markets, underpinned by demand from international institutional investors. As a long-term financing institution, sustainability plays a major role in fundraising activities. In July 2017, we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the launch of the world’s first green bond, our ground-breaking EUR 600 million issue. At end-2017, we remained the largest issuer of green bonds worldwide with more than EUR 19.4 billion issued in the format since 2007.