How the EU's Climate Bank Is Financing the Future

How is the European Investment Bank (‘EIB’) positioning itself as the EU’s climate bank? Listen to Jason Mitchell discuss with Andrew McDowell, Vice President of the European Investment Bank, why the EU Recovery Plan represents Europe’s Roosevelt New Deal moment and what wider EU sustainable finance legislative efforts are doing to reinforce the EIB’s climate objectives.

Recording date: 01.07.2020

Andrew McDowell

Andrew McDowell is one of the eight Vice Presidents of the European Investment Bank (‘EIB’) who, together with President Werner Hoyer, form the Management Committee that runs the bank on a day-to-day basis. Vice President McDowell has oversight of the Bank’s treasury, economics and evaluation functions, as well as lending operations in energy and the bioeconomy. He was the Vice President responsible for the development of the EIB’s new Energy Lending Policy that has committed the EIB to become the first major multilateral financing institution to end support for unabated fossil-fuel energy projects. Prior to joining the EIB in 2016, Andrew was Chief Economic Adviser to Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny from 2011, co-ordinating the policies that supported Ireland’s recovery from the economic crisis and sovereign bail-out.

The EIB is a publicly owned international financial institution whose shareholders are the EU member states. It was established in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome as a "policy-driven bank" using financing operations to further EU policy goals such as European integration and social cohesion. The Bank’s primary mission is to fund infrastructure projects in Europe.

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