14 June 2010: European Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and European Investment Bank (EIB) President Philippe Maystadt have agreed to explore a joint climate finance initiative for developing countries, combining European Commission and member States’ grants with financing from the EIB and other European financial institutions to meet adaptation and mitigation challenges.
The initiative would be part of the EU’s commitment made at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference last December. Hedegaard and Maystadt also welcomed a political agreement reached in mobilizing finance for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and innovative renewable energy technologies in the EU through the NER 300 initiative, under which 300 million emission allowances from the New Entrants Reserve of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) will be sold to raise funding for demonstration projects involving CCS and innovative renewable energy technologies. The European Commission and EIB are finalizing an inter-institutional agreement on the implementation of the NER 300 initiative. [EU Press Release]