The European Investment Bank (EIB) has completed an analysis of its standards, criteria and procedures in relation to short-lived climate pollutants. The EIB also looked into the projects and sectors that it finances, the impacts they have on SLCP emissions and where the bank can scale up financing of projects that mitigate these emissions. The EIB is one of the largest financers of climate action globally lending an estimated €110 billion between 2015 and 2020. The report, ‘Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs): An analysis of the EIB’s policies, procedures, impact of activities and options for scaling up mitigation efforts’ is in line with the Bank’s ambition to fine tune its climate action. In view of the substantial potential to reduce global warming in the near term, EIB decided to raise awareness of the potential for addressing SLCPs.
A key finding of the report was that not only are most SLCPs taken into account in the Bank’s monitoring exercises, but SLCPs were also considered in the Bank’s standards and criteria, and therefore in the decision making process. The report also found that while the external costs caused by emissions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) are already included in the Cost Benefit Analysis for energy sector projects they are not yet integrated into transport sector costs. The Bank will therefore work to include the external costs of PM2.5 when analyzing costs and benefits for transport projects in future.