Groups Urge International Investment Banks To Halt Funds For Fossil Fuel-related Projects

摘要

Two organizations are calling on the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the World Bank to halt funding for fossil fuel projects. Speaking in Poznan on the sidelines of the 14th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the European bank sector monitoring group Bankwatch and the environmental lobbying group Friends of the Earth both said that such funding is on the rise. An official in Poznan for the European Investment Bank declined to comment on the topic when contacted by BNA. World Bank officials were not available for comment. According to the Prague-based Bankwatch, the EIB loaned some €17 billion ($21.7 billion) for fossil fuel projects over the 10-year span ending in 2007, including €3 billion ($3.8 billion) last year alone. Bankwatch called for EIB loans for oil-related projects to be phased out by the end of 2009.