The European Investment Bank Group has been on the frontline of the European Union’s global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have responded to exceptional times with immediate and flexible action. From emergency support for small and medium-sized enterprises and innovative start-ups to financing for vaccines and public sector health projects, we have delivered.
The EIB Group has unlocked investment in a situation of extreme uncertainty. Our European Guarantee Fund has ensured open credit channels for thousands of projects that were too risky for commercial banks to fund on their own in the midst of the crisis. Our economic research shows that this support has been instrumental in helping firms to survive by investing in, for example, the digitalisation that allowed them to adapt to the crisis. Our massive financing for projects in life sciences and health, which could hardly be more crucial right now, have also been backed in part by these instruments.
Looking ahead, we are determined to continue to use risk-sharing instruments, applying the logic of this powerful tool to other projects with high social and economic value-added.
Indeed, COVID-19 is hardly the only major challenge the world faces. The climate crisis becomes ever more urgent and, as the EU climate bank, we are at the forefront of Europe’s efforts to become carbon neutral. We are committed to supporting €1 trillion of investment in climate action and environmental sustainability by the end of this decade. Much of that investment must be in often rather risky innovation: we face an unprecedented challenge and must meet it with new commercial ideas.
The guiding principle of our work on climate is our Climate Bank Roadmap. It went into implementation in 2021, making us the first multilateral development bank whose financing aligns fully with the goals of the Paris Agreement. This includes a complete stop to support for unabated fossil fuel energy projects, including natural gas. Our new adaptation plan, announced at COP26, includes measures that build upon the roadmap, and we introduced a framework to ensure that our counterparties take steps towards decarbonising their businesses if they want funding from us. In climate action, we have expanded beyond our primary role of financing new and mature technologies, positioning the Bank as a centre of knowledge upon which entire markets may draw. This is evident in our collaborations, such as the partnership with the European Commission and Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, which backs green technologies for deployment around the world.
The truth of the climate crisis is that, while some nations face a graver threat than others, today we are all transition economies. Together, we must seek the innovations that will turn our economies green. And we must ensure that the transition is just. In 2021, we augmented our development work, creating a new hub in Nairobi, even as we finalised the structure of EIB Global, our new outside EU arm, which begins operations in 2022. Uniquely among multilateral development banks, EIB global will use our experience from decades of financing climate projects inside the EU to promote state-of-the-art technology and know-how globally. This provides an opportunity for development that leapfrogs the polluting stages of industrial growth and goes directly to a green, clean economy. Our project experts ensure that everything we finance is sustainable—and we won’t change that business model. In December, when the G7 leaders identified the kind of change that is needed to modernize infrastructure and help developing countries find the trillions in finance needed to tackle future challenges, their statement highlighted more projects tied to the European Investment Bank than to any other international financial institution; a sign that we are on the right track.
EIB Global will help us improve on this performance further, with more local staff to develop new projects and to implement them. As a key contributor to Team Europe, we look forward to participating in the European Commission’s €300 billion Global Gateway to promote the kind of infrastructure around the world that will promote sustainable economic development while securing Europe’s autonomy and independence. With 75% more patents in the field of green, digital technologies than the US and four times as many as China, the European Union is a world leader with expertise to share in areas such as renewable energy, climate adaptation, flood control, advanced weather forecasting tools, resilient infrastructure and more. We will do our part to make the EU a global climate power.
The European Investment Bank is crucial to the recasting of business and society necessary to meet our present challenges. To create a sustainable world, we must all discover our new, best selves. With every innovative deal we finance, the European Investment Bank helps make that goal attainable.
Werner Hoyer
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