Tell Germany — pass the draft policy for a #FossilFreeEIB!

Send Your Message

Your letter will be delivered to Olaf Scholz, Vice Chancellor of Germany and German Federal Minister of Finance, Thomas Westphal, Director General for EU Affairs at the German Federal Ministry of Finance, and Jörg Kukies, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Finance:

We congratulate the EIB management on releasing an ambitious and powerful draft energy lending policy that would end the EIB’s financing of fossil fuels beyond 2020.

We are now calling on you to make the right decision for Germany, for the EU, and for the world, by supporting this ambition. After a summer of deadly wildfires and heat waves across the globe the risks of the climate crisis couldn’t be clearer. As Minister Scholz has recently said, it’s time for some bigger policy moves on climate change: it’s time for bold action, and we desperately need EU leadership on the issue of public finance for ANY fossil fuels.

Adopting the draft policy without loopholes that would allow more fossil fuel finance would send a strong signal to other financial institutions, public and private, across the EU and around the world.

The world can’t wait any longer: if Germany is to consider itself a climate leader, it can’t support more public money flowing to long-lived fossil fuel infrastructure that would lock us further into a carbon-intensive future.

If passed, the EIB draft policy could free up €2.4 billion a year being spent on gas, oil, and coal for climate solutions. There are eight scenarios laid out by the European Commission as possible pathways to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and none of these allow for further expansion of the fossil fuel industry, least of all with public money.

EIB management has listened to the massive outpouring of public support for climate ambition in developing this draft policy. Now we call on Germany as a government who has a powerful voice at the EIB to do the same: we are in a climate emergency, and it’s time to start acting like it. Minister Scholz: we believe that you want ambitious action on climate change. We know that some of your colleagues are pushing for fossil fuels to make it back into the energy lending policy, but we believe you know better: that we can’t afford to lock in long-lived fossil fuel infrastructure that will end up as stranded assets if we take the necessary action on climate change. We urge you to stand strong, to support the ambitious draft policy, and end the EIB’s support for fossil fuels.

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Comment

In June, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced a draft policy that would phase out of all fossil fuel finance by 2020! But the fight isn’t over: This ambitious policy still needs to be approved by the member state representatives who make up the EIB’s Board of Directors this fall, and we can’t let them water it down.

We’ve come this far and now we just need to take this ambitious policy across the finish line.

Passing the policy means getting a majority of votes PLUS a majority of the subscribed capital. That means Germany has a large portion of the voting power — the problem is they have not yet indicated where they stand on the draft.

We need your help to call on key German decision-makers to be climate leaders and pass this ambitious fossil fuel phase-out policy.

The science is clear: We need to stop expanding the fossil fuel industry, and we need to do it now. This means we can’t waste one cent more of government-backed finance on the fossil fuel industry. As the world’s largest multilateral lender, it’s crucial that the EIB take a leadership role. If they move on this issue, you can be sure that many other financial institutions will follow.

Tell German decision-makers it’s time for the EIB to #StopFundingFossils.