The European Investment Bank (EIB), the world’s largest multilateral lender and biggest provider of climate finance, illegally avoided environmental scrutiny of its financing decisions, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Wednesday (27 January).
The ruling follows a case brought by ClientEarth against the EU bank after it refused the NGO’s request for an internal review of a €60 million loan.
Lawyers said that granting the loan for the construction of a biomass power generation plant in Spain breached the EIB’s financing criteria for responsible investment in renewable energy and that there had been errors in the assessment of the project’s suitability for funding.