Technical assistance for implementing Paris goals

Explanation

Policy level, climate-related technical assistance

The Climate Bank Roadmap 2021–2025 states that the EIB’s business development activity will be anchored in the context of NDCs, National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and Long-Term Strategies (LTSs). With that in mind, the EIB will seek to engage with countries by ensuring access to long-term finance and advisory support. It is unclear how this is implemented, and how this assumption influences the financing of, for instance, important investment opportunities in countries where national plans are not sufficiently robust.  

Despite being a member of the NDC Partnership, the EIB does not have a specific programme or initiative to support NDCs. The Roadmap states that advisory services need to be developed in collaboration with the European Commission, EU delegations and the European External Action Service. This could include support for country NDCs, with the EIB noting that such support may involve stronger engagement at the country level in selected regions, based on the Bank’s areas of expertise. These include the bankability of renewable energy support schemes, energy efficiency programmes and innovation finance, among others.

Finally, the EIB Energy Lending Policy additionally refers to “dialogues” with member states and other countries on how to use its “advisory services” to support their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) under EU law and NDCs under the Paris Agreement.

Other technical assistance

The EIB has increased its focus on offering technical assistance to its sovereign and non-sovereign clients in recent years both within and outside the EU, which is a highly encouraging development. Recent initiatives are wide-ranging in terms of sectoral scope. They include:

• Green Gateway: Through the EIB’s European Investment Advisory Hub (EIAH), the platform provides advisory support and resources for financial intermediaries. The initiative provides e-learning modules and a document library on topics related to climate action, and environmental sustainability. The Platform was developed in partnership with the European Commission and has helped unlock EUR 3.3 billion in EIB lending by end of 2022.
• Greening financial systems TA programme: In 2022, EIB Global launched a technical assistance program to “build capacity in green financing practices at central banks, supervisory authorities and commercial banks in developing countries”. This German-funded EUR 20 million programme covers seven extra-EU countries as part of the NDC Partnership’s “Readiness support for greening central banks” initiative.
• Global Green Bond Initiative (GGBI): The GGBI supports the development of green bond markets in EU partner countries, the first pillar of which is technical assistance to building issuers’ capacity and know-how at the local level.
• Climate Adaptation Investment Advisory Platform (ADAPT): The platform provides access to technical and financial advice on all aspects of managing physical climate risk and building climate resilience to all public and private project promoters (public authorities, corporates and public sector entities, financial institutions) within the EU.
• Cleaner Transport Facility (CTF): The CTF deploys the EIB’s technical and financial capacity to boost opportunities for cleaner transport, including charging infrastructure.
• European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA): ELENA provides technical assistance for energy efficiency and renewable energy investments targeting building and innovative urban transport.
• Technical Assistance for Regions Undergoing a Green Energy Transition (TARGET): TARGET assists EU coal, peat and shale regions with their just transition through the identification and preparation of clean energy and energy efficiency projects.
• Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions (JASPERS): JASPERS provides support to EU municipalities and cities in building circular economy principles into urban development and investment strategies.

Additionally, under the EIB’s 2022 PATH framework, businesses can receive advisory support to develop the decarbonisation and resilience plans necessary in order to meet the PATH framework’s climate and transition risk requirements, which is excellent. The EIB further notes it offers advisory support to financial institutions globally in order to align reporting with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures’ (TCFD) recommendations.  

Recommendation:

• The EIB could consider how to leverage the expertise demonstrated in the development of regulatory and supervisory frameworks within the EU in its work with international clients. As a major actor in policy development in the region setting a number of global norms and standards in sustainable finance, the EIB is well placed to help build capability needed to adhere with sustainable finance standards, while also being uniquely positioned to feed back implementation challenges to policymakers. An expansion of EIB Global’s Greening Financial Systems technical assistance programme would provide a potential mechanism for doing this.