EIB phases out of fossil fuels: The announcement on the eve of the 50th anniversary
The last decades we were wrong – admits Jean Claude, Senior Energy Advisor, during a recent conference to introduce the new energy world order. – In the last five years alone we spent 12 billion EUR on oil, gas and coal projects. By heavily subsidizing wealthy private companies with public funds, we blocked a major shift from fossil fuels towards renewable energies.
On the eve of its 50th anniversary the fossil fuel supertanker announced a new energy world order by challenging all other public International Financial Institution to follow its lead and phase out of fossil fuel investments.
“To ensure that our climate change debt will be paid in full to the nations whom for so long we have ignored, we will offset the last decade of fossil fuel investments with heavy support for new renewable energies and energy efficiency” said Jean Claude.
The Bank outlined a new seven-pillar strategy on which it bases its decision to phase out of fossil fuels.
1. Lending impact on climate change
Fossil fuel use is clearly one of the
major causes of global climate change.
The bank will stop financing largescale
fossil fuel projects, such as oil
and gas pipelines or coal fired power
plants, and instead will intensively focus
its lending into renewable energy,
energy efficiency, research and new
technologies implementation.
2. The inevitable dangers for human
rights and democracy
In a number of developing countries
fossil fuel exploitation has been
linked to the abuse of human rights,
especially when military forces guard
extractive industries projects. Socalled
project revenues in many cases
have been used to strengthen dictatorships
or to maintain corrupt systems
of public administration.
3. Negative impacts on communities.
Oil and gas extraction, with associated
pipeline construction, disproportionately
affects poor, indigenous and
rural communities. These people often
end up losing their land and livestock
– their main source of food,
income and livelihood.
4. Stimulating and exacerbating
armed conflicts
Fossil fuel projects are all too often
found in the middle of socially sensitive
areas, where the competition for
control of oil revenues may cause or
exacerbate civil wars and domestic
armed conflicts. .
5. Loss of precious ecosystems and
biodiversity
From Siberia’s boreal forests to the
mangroves of Central America, everywhere,
fossil fuel operations are
causing irreversible damage to ecosystems.
As a result, every day priceless
biodiversity is being lost.
6. Impacts on gender inequity
Seventy percent of the world’s poor
are women, yet there are no special
provisions to ensure that they benefit
from fossil fuel projects, while they
are most vulnerable to the negative
impacts that these types of projects
tend to bring.
7. Subsidising mega profit-making
corporations
The EIB has financed fossil fuel subsidising
mega profit-making international
companies with the money of
European taxpayers, but not in their
interest. In 2006, revenues of Shell,
BP, Total and ENI (Agip) totaled a
stunning USD 870 billion, while in
the same year Shell emitted more
greenhouse gases than total gases
emitted within Austria, Portugal and
Hungary.
There are better things to do with public funds than support wealthy oil companies
There is no doubt that with its latest decision, the largest public bank in the world will play a significant role in changing the global energy market and bring new sustainable solutions to the world. With the EIB now on board, the European Commission finally can take serious measures to combat climate change.