European Investment Bank analysis of Short-Lived Climate Pollutants

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.

The Bank’s analysis also suggested that among the SLCP relevant projects it financed between 2009 and 2014, replacing old gas pipelines, thus reducing methane leaks, was where the highest direct savings in SLCP emissions were demonstrated.

However when looking at other benefits beyond decreasing the carbon footprint of projects the Bank found waste and waste water projects “not only contribute consistently to emissions savings, but also have positive impacts on the environment (e.g. water and soil quality), on the health of the local population, and on the economy by increasing resource efficiency”. The Bank feels that it can particularly add value in this sector.

The report also gives an excellent overview of the four main SLCPs the Climate and Clean Air Coalition are working to reduce – methane, tropospheric ozone, black carbon, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – and the benefits to climate, health and ecosystems. It also provides an overview of international, European Union (EU), and national regulations on SLCPs and the policy framework at the international and EU level.

Get the report from the EIB website