EIB 2022 Sustainability Disclosures in accordance with SASB Framework (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board)

Abstract

The EIB carries out a three-step “sustainability due diligence” on all the investment projects it finances in terms of their sustainability credentials such as environmental, social and governance aspects. Certain activities are completely excluded from EIB financing. All projects supported have to meet the EIB environmental and social standards.  Furthermore, the EIB makes a separate economic appraisal of the investment projects to assess their costs and benefits to society at large. This considers the human, technological or natural resources used by the project, often using shadow costs — including for carbon — and gauges its value for all stakeholders to determine whether society at large gains from the investment. An economic appraisal is often needed because markets are not always sufficiently competitive, prices are often distorted, and property rights are at times not well defined, leaving externalities such as carbon emissions without an (appropriate) price assigned to them. A project’s financial return may, therefore, not be an adequate indicator to demonstrate the impact on society. Only projects that pass both the financial screening and the separate sustainability due diligence can be financed by the EIB. In addition to our well-established sustainability due diligence process, since 2021 our new projects and operations have been aligned with the Paris Agreement, and we no longer support projects not aligned with its goals, such as airport expansions or new conventional energy-intensive industrial plants.