The most recent figures on EIB lending to fossil fuels, and in particular to gas infrastructure, got a considerable boost in early 2018, when the bank decided to channel more than € 2.4 billion into one of the most expensive (and controversial) infrastructure projects of all times: the Southern Gas Corridor.
Amid civil society’s dismay, the bank decided on a € 1.5 billion loan to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) – the western leg of the corridor passing through Greece and Albania and landing on southern Italian shores – and a € 932 million loan to the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) – TAP’s eastern “sister” crossing Turkey.
The climate consequences of these investments will be disastrous. A recent report by Oxfam and Stockholm Environment Institute showed that for each dollar invested by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in TANAP there will be a global climate damage of up to 13 dollars.
But to the corruption, human rights, and above all climate-impact concerns brought up by civil society on the project, the EIB decided to turn a deaf ear and hide behind the political decisions of the European Commission and the External Action Service.
Watch the VIDEO: This is not a pipe – The “treachery” of the EU gas plans
Explore the webdocumentary “Walking The Line”
Read more on the project at counter-balance.org and bankwatch.org