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Case study

The European Investment Bank’s Climate Strategy

In September 2015, the EIB’s Board of Directors approved the Bank’s Climate Strategy. It articulates the long-term vision for EIB’s approach towards climate action, to support the Bank’s mission, which is “to play a leading role, amongst financial institutions, in mobilising the finance needed to achieve the worldwide commitment to keep  global warming below 2°C…
Key points
  • Extensive, early and wide internal and external consultations are required to identify and build consensus on the climate action objectives, including targets, and to obtain strong buy-in and support for implementation from all the relevant stakeholders
  • This has to be supported by extensive awareness raising, knowledge sharing and training programmes. These need to be tailored and take into consideration the different roles/responsibilities of different services in implementing the Strategy.
  • Drafting the Climate Strategy and its related action plans in sequence has enabled the involvement of different stakeholders and has also helped to progressively involve parts of the Bank that had previously not been closely
    involved with climate action.
  • Phasing of the implementation in the definition of Action Plan deliverables needs to be carefully thought through, also based on an assessment of existing resources and of the resources that can realistically be mobilized.
  • Ensuring management buy-in for objectives and deliverables and involving management from all relevant departments in the monitoring process is essential to maintain awareness across the institution around the Strategy’s relevance and to increase the likelihood of its implementation.