Maximising Climate Bank — EIB Operations in Sustainable Transport

“Tesla Giga Train.” Credit: NEB.

Last Updated on: 10th July 2025, 01:29 am

T&E’s analysis of gaps and opportunities for the European Investment Bank’s transport lending.

Back in 2021, the European Investment Bank (EIB) has committed to become the EU’s Climate Bank by adopting the Climate Bank Roadmap. This year, this Roadmap will be renewed for the period 2026–2030.

Transport lending activities are at the heart of the EIB lending portfolio and therefore play a critical role for the clean transition. T&E assessed 254 EIB operations in the EU across eight strategic transport sectors from 2021 up to February 2025, worth €61 billion — nearly 20% of EIB lending in the EU.

The EIB needs to do more to align transport lending with Climate Bank mandate

Despite its “climate bank” promise, the EIB plowed €1 billion into biofuels — technologies that are neither scalable nor sustainable, and that risk diverting funds from genuinely green solutions.
The EIB needs to ramp up support for the entire domestic cleantech value chain. From €3.9 billion for 17 batteries’ projects, €2.5 billion went into battery manufacturing. Much less has been flowing into components and materials where the EU remains exposed to dependencies.
Roads too dominant: Since 2021, the EIB has spent €7.79 billion on EU road infrastructure, most of it on new roads. This is more than what the EIB invested in Europe’s domestic battery value chains (€3.88 bn) and alternative fuels (€2.36 bn) combined.
Of €1.1 billion for port and airport projects, only two out of 11 ports included any renewable‐energy components — and the Bank even backed airport expansion in breach of its own Climate Bank Roadmap commitments.
The EIB’s “Climate Action & Environmental Sustainability (CA&ES)” label stretches credibility when it flags motorway expansions through protected Natura 2000 sites — projects guaranteed to spike CO₂ emissions — as environmentally sustainable.
Rail and urban mobility — the bright spots: On the flip side, the EIB funneled €23.6 billion into EU rail upgrades (making it the transport sector’s top beneficiary) and €13.3 billion into cleaner urban transport — providing a strong example of how public investment can boost the green transition.

Cementing climate as a top priority for a clean European industry

The EIB Climate Bank Roadmap for 2026–2030 should accelerate its transformation into the EU’s Climate Bank. This means full alignment with stringent net-zero pathways for its transport operations, as transport represents 29% of EU emissions in 2022.
The EIB needs to make better use of its EU Climate Bank mandate and maximise the complementarity with private lending. It should take more risks and expand its use of de-risking instruments (guarantees, counter-guarantees). Currently, the EIB invests the majority of its resources into ‘low risk’ assets, including road infrastructure. Clean future oriented technologies such as batteries, synthetic fuels and their supply chains would benefit from EIB’s de-risking capacity as they lack access to conventional financing
The future Climate Bank Roadmap should limit inefficient and environmentally harmful investments in new road infrastructure and biofuels. Instead, double down on renewable synthetic fuels to decarbonise aviation and shipping. Likewise, the EIB should focus on upgrading airports and ports for a net-zero future instead of supporting expansion.

The EIB needs to fully align its operations with a European Green industrial strategy. Prioritising projects that use locally made components or materials is key to contributing to sustainable competitiveness in Europe. The EIB can do more to boost EU’s clean industrial transition — developing and scaling up the domestic battery value chain, e-fuels production and the road e-mobility, including charging.