EIB accused of marring EU climate goals with E1.5bn gas pipeline loan

Source: The Guardian

EIB accused of marring EU climate goals with €1.5bn gas pipeline loan

European Investment Bank expected to approve loan on day of summit to mark second anniversary of Paris deal

Adam Vaughan
Sunday 10 December 2017 13.56 GMT

The EU’s bank has come under fire for moves towards approving a €1.5bn (£1.3bn) loan for a gas pipeline from Azerbaijan to western Europe as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, prepared to hosted a climate change summit in Paris.

Campaigners said the European Investment Bank, which is expected to support the transadriatic pipeline (TAP) with one of its largest ever loans on Tuesday, was acting against the EU’s climate change commitments.

The bank has been privately urged by the EU’s climate and energy chiefs to approve the loan because the project’s backers “need to urgently secure adequate funding” as they enter a capital-intensive construction phase.

But opponents of the plan said that approving the loan on the second anniversary of the Paris climate deal being agreed would be an affront to Europe’s efforts to curb carbon emissions.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/10/eib-accused-eu-climate-goals-gas-pipeline-loan-european-investment-bank-summit-paris