This page is part of the E3G Public Bank Climate Tracker Matrix, our tool to help you assess the Paris alignment of public banks, MDBs and DFIs.
This page is part of the E3G Public Bank Climate Tracker Matrix, our tool to help you assess the Paris alignment of public banks, MDBs and DFIs.
Paris alignment | Reasoning |
Transformational | The promotion of green finance is one of the four workstreams of the EIB Climate Bank Roadmap 2021–2025. The EIB was the first institution globally, in 2007, to issue green bonds, and remains the largest issuer among the MDBs. It has been a leader in innovative green bond products and has established initiatives to develop the green bond market globally, such as the Global Green Bond Initiative. The Bank has also actively participated in the development of the EU sustainable finance framework and has developed technical assistance initiatives such as Green Gateway to further drive uptake of green finance, including with financial intermediaries in the EU and for supervisory authorities and central banks in developing countries. The EIB is further developing its use of innovative financial instruments, completed the first ever debt-for-climate resilience conversion in Barbados and implemented the pilot climate-resilient debt clause in 2024. The EIB will continue to develop counter-guarantee schemes. |
The EIB Climate Bank Roadmap (CBR) 2021–2025 includes “accelerating the transition through green finance” as one of its four workstreams. To achieve this, the Bank has committed to increasing and mainstreaming green finance throughout its operations and sectoral approaches. Within the EIB, the Sustainable Finance Division of the Finance Directorate is mandated to develop green financial products in its areas of operations.
The EIB has played a pivotal role in developing regulatory and supervisory frameworks both within the EU and internationally, notably contributing to the EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities and EIB Global’s Greening Financial Systems technical assistance programme. As part of the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance, the EIB contributed to the advancement of the EU sustainable finance framework and advised the European Commission on data quality and availability for EU Taxonomy disclosures through the Platform’s Recommendations on Data and Usability. Internationally, the EIB has contributed to the taxonomies working group of the International Platform on Sustainable Finance.
The EIB also engages with clients and other International Financial Institutions (IFIs) on a voluntary basis to help them overcome the challenges of applying the Taxonomy. Learnings from this engagement are in turn fed back to the Platform on Sustainable Finance.
Beyond its work on taxonomies, the Bank has launched technical assistance programmes (both within the EU and internationally) to further catalyse green finance mobilisation. The Green Eligibility Checker and the Green Gateway are flagship advisory programmes which promote effective implementation and reporting of green financing by financial intermediaries.[1] Moreover, in 2022 EIB Global launched the Greening Financial Systems technical assistance programme to build capacity in green financing practices at central banks, supervisory authorities and commercial banks in developing countries.
The EIB is also a member of the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors on Greening the Financial System (NGFS) and a partner of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action.[2]
Innovative financial instruments
In recent years, the EIB Group has developed an extensive array of innovative financial and non-financial instruments to catalyse the mobilisation of green finance by sovereign and private sector clients. These instruments include:
Aside from the above instruments, EIB Global is working with peer institutions to contribute to the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). The EIB and its partners have set up a cooperative approach with Rwanda to facilitate public–private partnerships and crowd in private capital, strengthening the catalysing effect of the IMF’s RSF arrangements.
The EIB has an extensive and pioneering green bond programme. In July 2007 the EIB was the first institution globally to issue a green bond – the Climate Awareness Bond (CAB) – dedicated to renewable energy and efficiency projects. The Bank was also responsible for the green bond market’s first comprehensive impact report in March 2015.
The EIB’s CABs are aimed at climate change mitigation projects in the fields of renewable energy, energy efficiency, low-carbon transport and innovative low-carbon technologies. Since 2018, the Bank also issues Sustainability Awareness Bonds (SABs), which finance projects with environmental and social objectives beyond climate change mitigation. Notable relevant objectives identified in the SAB framework include: the sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, pollution prevention and control, protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems, access to water sanitation, and natural disaster risk management.
The gradual alignment of eligibility criteria for CAB and SAB projects with the proposed EU Taxonomy for green, sustainable activities and the EU Green Bond Standard is an encouraging development. It holds promising potential to enhance investor confidence in green finance, increase transparency, and raise standards through the sharing of best practices. The EIB is actively involved in shaping the EU Green Bond Standard, which will mandate that the funds from green bonds are directed towards projects that comply with the EU Taxonomy. EIB launched its first CAB issuance fully aligned with the EU Green Bond Standard, the first supra-national bond to do so, in April 2025.
As of 2024, the EIB has issued more than EUR 100 billion in CABs and SABs across 23 currencies since 2007, thereby making the bank the largest MDB issuer of green bonds, with EUR 14.6 billion in 2023 alone. CABs and SABs represented 29% of EIB’s funding programme in 2023 (up from 7% in 2019, 14% in 2020 and 20% in 2021, but down from 45% in 2022).
The EIB has also been a leader in developing innovative green bond schemes. Alongside asset management firm Amundi, it launched the Green Credit Continuum (Greco) programme in July 2019 to facilitate access to green bond financing for small-scale green projects and small and medium-sized enterprises. This initiative was named Green bond fund of the year by Environmental Finance in 2020, a news and analysis outlet on sustainable finance. In addition to this, the EIB has launched the Green Bond Purchasing Programme, for which first operations concluded in 2021. This programme involves the EIB catalysing additional private sector financing by purchasing green bonds issued in EU capital markets, thereby complementing its long-term loan financing offering and promoting companies aligning with the EU Taxonomy.
The EIB has also been supporting the development of green bond markets globally. The Bank is a founding member of the Global Green Bond Initiative (GGBI), an EU-led Global Team Europe Initiative intended to facilitate the flow of private capital from institutional investors into climate and environment projects in EU partner countries. The EIB also collaborated with the GCF to launch the Green Debt Advisory Platform in early 2023. This platform provides technical assistance to African countries for identifying bankable green projects and strengthening green debt ecosystems and institutions, with the aim to anchor investment in green bond issuances. In June 2023, it was announced that the GGBP would launch further technical assistance schemes to develop and strengthen green bond markets in emerging markets and developing economies. A strategic partnership was signed in September 2023 between the GGBP and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to pursue these objectives in the Latin American and Caribbean region. The EIB has also notably been undertaking work in partnership with China on green bonds, including the development of a common language and terminology on green finance.
Recommendations:
[1] For further information, see the “Technical assistance for implementing Paris goals” metric.
[2] The NGFS is a network of central banks and financial supervisors aiming to accelerate the scale-up of green finance. The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action is a grouping of fiscal and economic policymakers from over 90 countries which seeks to facilitate the deployment of policy instruments to accelerate the climate transition.
[3] The Fund is a collaboration between the EIB and the European Commission.