Bank
revises lending criteria to support EU climate policy on cutting carbon
emissions across Europe
 |
| Water vapour and smoke rises from a coal-fired power plant in Belchatow, Poland. Photograph: John Guillemin/Getty Images |
The
European investment bank (EIB), the EU's main lending arm, said it would stop
financing most coal-fired power stations to help the 28-nation bloc reduce
pollution and meet its climate targets.
New and
refurbished coal-fired power plants will not be eligible for funding unless
they emit less than 550 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour (gCO2/kW),
the EIB said on Wednesday, which could be met either by a combined heat and
power plant or one that also burns biomass.
"Adoption
of the new lending criteria represents an important step forward in the
European Investment Bank's commitment to energy investment that supports EU
policy and reflects the urgent investment challenges currently facing the
energy sector," Mihai Tanasescu, EIB vice president responsible for energy
lending, said in a statement.
The EU
lender also said it could tighten the emissions standard in the future to
ensure its lending criteria are consistent with EU climate policy and create
jobs across Europe.
The EIB
decision follows moves by other multilateral financial institutions such as the
Washington-headquartered World Bank to fund coal-fired power stations only in "rare circumstances".
Since the
start of 2007, the EIB has loaned around €11bn ($14.5bn) to fossil fuel-fired
plants, most of it to gas rather than coal, out of its total lending for power
of €83bn.
"The
vote to introduce an emissions performance standard represents a step-change in
the EU's fight against climate change and puts the bankers ahead of politicians
in terms of tangible action," said Ingrid Holmes, of environmental think
tank E3G in a statement.
She added:
"With several directors pushing for 450 gCO2/kW at the meeting, I'd expect
to see it tightened further over the next 12 months as the politics of the EU's
broader approach to 2030 (carbon emissions) targets is settled."
An
emissions cap of 450g/kW would mean that older, inefficient gas plants would
also not be eligible for funding. The cap would have to be 150g/kW to force all
gas plants to deploy largely unproven carbon capture and storage technology.
Berber
Verpoest, co-ordinator of EIB pressure group Counter Balance said:
"Despite the introduction of stronger emissions standards, the EIB keeps the
door open to all fossil fuels including the possible financing of shale gas and
also makes it easier to lend to large dams with negative social and
environmental effects. More can and should be expected from a self-declared
climate champion."
According
to some observers at the meeting, Germany's director on the EIB board, which is
made up representatives of EU member states and the European commission, had
urged that the bank should continue to finance coal-fired projects but was
outnumbered.
Germany relies
on coal and lignite for around 45% of its power generation as it speeds up the
shutdown of its nuclear power stations by early in the 2020s in the aftermath
of 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
Related Articles:
"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)
“… 4 - Energy (again)
The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!
Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much….”
“… New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.
It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.
So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.
Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to self-correct? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”
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