The activists called for the EIB to cease financing all fossil fuel projects and supporting carbon emitting companies and to stop what Greenpeace sees as greenwashing. Photo: Greenpeace Luxembourg

The activists called for the EIB to cease financing all fossil fuel projects and supporting carbon emitting companies and to stop what Greenpeace sees as greenwashing. Photo: Greenpeace Luxembourg

Greenpeace Luxembourg activists protested in front of the European Investment Bank on Wednesday morning, calling on the world's largest multilateral lender to live up to its EU climate bank tagline.

A meeting of the EIB’s board of directors was the occasion for the Greenpeace protest as the activists pulled up a banner reading “European Greenwashing Bank”.

“Gas is over,” the EIB’s president Werner Hoyer had declared in 2019. However, the bank has invested €890m in fossil gas projects since then, says Greenpeace Luxembourg.

“As a public institution, the EIB, under the leadership of its president, Werner Hoyer, is committed to the Paris climate agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. […] The EIB has no excuse for continuing to finance fossil fuels, highway expansion and industrial agriculture,” said Greenpeace Luxembourg in a press release.

The environmental global campaigning network also highlights that the EIB continues to work with some of the biggest polluters in Europe such as PGE in Poland, ČEZ in Czechia and Endesa in Spain. Greenpeace also slammed a loan of €264m for the extension of a highway in Germany which resulted in deforestation.

The activists called on the EIB to cease financing all fossil fuel projects and supporting carbon emitting companies and to stop what Greenpeace sees as greenwashing.

“The European Investment Bank works closely with civil society around the world,” stated the EIB following the protests. “It welcomes the peaceful nature of the demonstration by Greenpeace at EIB headquarters in Luxembourg earlier today highlighting the importance of climate action. The European Investment Bank is committed to working with partners worldwide to accelerate transformational investment for climate action.”

The EIB also said that it pledged to base future climate financing decision on the EU’s green .

In light of Cop26 in Glasgow, on 10 November the EU bank launched a plan to support projects around the world to help countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. It pledged to increase the share of adaptation support to 15% of the bank’s overall finance for climate action by 2025. However, the EU multilateral lender has found itself under increasing pressure to make good on its promises.

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