The joint climate finance initiative would help deliver the billions of climate finance the EU pledged at the Copenhagen climate conference last December during international negotiations over a new climate treaty.
The idea behind the joint efforts is to combine grants from the Commission and member states with loans from the EIB and other European financial institutions, explained EIB Vice-President Simon Brooks.
"We think an EU climate action finance platform would give visibility to the commitments made by the European Union in Copenhagen last year," he said after talks with EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard.
The two institutions are already cooperating in implementing the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF), which has since its launch in 2008 provided finance to renewable energy funds in Southern Africa and Asia.
The EIB's role in climate finance is on the rise as the EU executive proposed in April to increase the bank's overseas lending by €2 billion between 2011 and 2013. The extra money will be directed towards climate protection.
CCS, renewables funding moves forward
Hedegaard and EIB President Philippe Maystadt also welcomed a political agreement between the two institutions on how to mobilise the 300 million emission allowances from the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) which were set aside in the 'new entrants reserve' to finance carbon capture and storage (CCS) renewables projects.
Member state experts reached an agreement in February that the European Commission would set aside 300 million allowances at European level, which would then be sold by the EIB and the proceeds distributed to support projects in member states (EurActiv 03/02/10).
A three-month scrutiny period for the European Parliament and member states in the Council of the European Union ended in May and the agreement should be formally adopted later this month.
The political agreement between the Commission and the EIB concerns the details of the bank's role in evaluating the viability of the proposed projects and how it will monetise the 300 million allowances. The institutions are expected to sign the final agreement this autumn.
