EIB Global Report: The Impact E-Book

• Herausgeber: European Investment Bank
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 110

Beschreibung

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has a long track record as a provider of development and climate finance, working with EU institutions, Member States and partner countries in the EU neighbourhood, sub-Saharan Africa and around the world to foster sustainable development and bring real benefits to people's lives. The challenges faced by our partners around the world are many: economies struggle to provide adequate jobs and basic infrastructure, while dealing with the growing needs for climate action and protection of the environment. These challenges have been aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic and the ramifications of the conflict in Ukraine. As of the start of 2022, the EIB's development finance role is being taken forward and intensified through EIB Global. The new structure builds on the strength and experience that the EIB has gained working outside Europe to mobilise more development and climate finance, and increase impact. The purpose of this report is twofold. First, it provides an overview of the Bank's activities outside the European Union in 2021, with a focus on the expected results, complemented by reporting on the results already achieved by past operations. Second, it elaborates on the context of the Bank's engagement in countries outside Europe, examining different development challenges and how they confront different regions, drawing on our own development research.

Leseprobe

EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK

2021/2022

EIB GLOBAL REPORT

THE IMPACT

About the European Investment Bank

The European Investment Bank Group is the EU bank and the world’s biggest multilateral lender. We finance sustainable investment in small and medium-sized enterprises, innovation, infrastructure, and climate and environment. We have financed Europe’s economic growth for six decades and are at the forefront of EU crisis response, leading the world in climate investment and backing development of the first COVID-19 vaccine. We are committed to triggering €1 trillion in investment in climate and environmental sustainability to combat climate change by the end of this decade. About 10% of all our investment is outside the European Union, where our EIB Global branch supports Europe’s neighbours and global development.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP TO SUPPORT ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND CLIMATE TRANSITION

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

EASTERN NEIGHBOURHOOD AND CENTRAL ASIA

SOUTHERN NEIGHBOURHOOD

PRE-ACCESSION COUNTRIES: WESTERN BALKANS AND TURKEY

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

A GLOBAL GREEN DEAL

REPLACING FOSSIL FUELS, INCREASING ENERGY ACCESS, BUILDING CLIMATE RESILIENCE

CLIMATE RISKS AND DEVELOPMENT

WHY SOME COMPANIES DON’T MAKE GREEN INVESTMENTS

GREENING AFRICA’S FINANCIAL SECTOR

EIB LENDING FOR CLIMATE ACTION: STEPPING UP TO THE CHALLENGE

2021 IN FIGURES: CLIMATE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

JOBS AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH

THE EFFECT OF COVID-19, THE UKRAINE WAR AND GLOBAL INFLATION ON SME ACCESS TO FINANCE

CREDIT CONSTRAINTS AND GAPS FOR BUSINESSES IN THE EU NEIGHBOURHOOD

IMPROVING ACCESS TO FINANCE FOR SMALLER COMPANIES: A LOOK BACK AT A DECADE OF CREDIT LINES

2021 IN FIGURES: PRIVATE SECTOR GROWTH AND EMPLOYMENT

CONNECTING THE GLOBE

COVID-19: THE NEED FOR A GLOBAL RESPONSE

CONNECTIVITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

TRADE CONNECTIONS, INNOVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN THE EU NEIGHBOURHOOD

2021 IN FIGURES: CONNECTING THE GLOBE

IMPACT IN DETAIL

HOW WE MEASURE RESULTS AND IMPACT

EXPECTED RESULTS OF NEW PROJECTS

THE EIB’S CONTRIBUTION TO NEW PROJECTS

CARBON FOOTPRINT EXERCISE

MACROECONOMIC IMPACT MODELLING

RESULTS OF COMPLETED PROJECTS

LENDING VOLUMES

PRESIDENT’S FOREWORD

“ The EIB is a leading multilateral provider of development finance. As such, we believe it is essential to base our work on a real understanding of local contexts, working closely with national governments, other EU institutions and development partners. „

Our greatest challenges are global. The pandemic, for example, has taught us that the public health situation in one country can quickly come to affect us all, putting lives at risk and creating immense global disruption. It is also an example of the responsibility we have in developed nations to help others facing the same threats with fewer resources. That is why, last year, at the EIB we continued our exceptional response to the pandemic. We worked with the COVAX initiative and partner countries to help vaccinate nearly 500 million people against COVID-19, and with GAVI, the vaccine alliance, to vaccinate 280 million children in sub-Saharan Africa against various preventable diseases.

Now, the war in Ukraine casts a new shadow over development prospects. Aside from the terrible toll in that country, the war is causing great disruption to Ukraine’s neighbours and sending shockwaves around the world. Higher energy and food prices are undermining food security, energy security and macrofinancial stability in many developing and emerging economies. This emphasises how important it is to build trusted links — political partnerships, economic cooperation and physical infrastructure — to help countries around the world reap the full benefits of closer association with the European Union. In March this year, the European Investment Bank provided €668 million in emergency lending for Ukraine, to cover urgent financial needs. We are working to provide additional financial assistance so Ukraine can emerge stronger from this tremendous challenge.

This year has also seen an unprecedented heat wave hit South Asia, with further implications for food security. Whatever else may grab the headlines, climate change has not gone away. As Europeans, we must take all necessary measures to decarbonise our economy. However, we also know that, alone, this will not be enough. We must embrace our responsibility to support investment in climate change mitigation and adaptation, wherever our help is needed. The climate transition is, in fact, a tremendous development opportunity. Projects we financed in 2021 will generate enough electricity from renewables to power 2.5 million homes and enable people to make 850 million journeys every year on low-carbon public transport.

This report is about the €7.2 billion in financing we provided to low and middle-income countries outside the European Union in 2021. More importantly, it is about the results of this lending and the impact it will have on people’s lives. Nearly 100 new projects financed in 2021 will also help sustain 527 000 jobs and support improved water supply or sanitation for 3.4 million people.

This report also draws on the research we conduct at the European Investment Bank to deepen our understanding of development challenges and needs. The EIB is a leading multilateral provider of development finance. As such, we believe it is essential to base our work on a real understanding of local contexts, working closely with national governments, other EU institutions and development partners. While this report focuses on research and impact, its companion volume — EIB Global Report: The Story — takes a closer look at selected projects and the lives they change.

The European Investment Bank has decades of experience financing sound projects in sub-Saharan Africa, the European Union’s neighbours to the south and east, and in Asia and Latin America. Since the start of 2022, this work is taken forward through a new arm, EIB Global. The new structure will capitalise even more on our experience and strengths to mobilise more development and climate finance, and to enhance our impact. With a stronger local presence in partner countries, EIB Global will foster focused partnerships within Team Europe and in support of the Global Gateway initiative.

By working together, in a true spirit of partnership, we can create a greener, more connected and more prosperous future for all regions of the world.

Werner Hoyer

WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP TO SUPPORT ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND CLIMATE TRANSITION

From the fight against climate change to the coronavirus pandemic, the interconnections in our world have become ever clearer. The European Investment Bank’s support for its global partners, as part of Europe’s response, has focused on helping countries withstand the severe economic implications of COVID-19 and the urgent provision of vaccines, while continuing to offer support for jobs and sustainable growth. Climate action and environmental sustainability also remain a critical and expanding area of EIB support.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has a long track record as a provider of development and climate finance, working with EU institutions, Member States and partner countries in the EU neighbourhood, sub-Saharan Africa and around the world to foster sustainable development and bring real benefits to people’s lives. The challenges faced by our partners around the world are many: economies struggle to provide adequate jobs and basic infrastructure, while dealing with the growing needs for climate action and protection of the environment. These challenges have been aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic and the ramifications of the conflict in Ukraine.

A €250 million EIB loan is helping the Government of Bangladesh to access COVID-19 vaccines and strengthen treatment.

Strong global progress on poverty reduction is at risk of stalling

Economic growth has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in recent decades. A large part of that growth took place in China, South and Southeast Asia, where companies were able to seize the opportunities provided by globalisation to tap new markets, adopt new technologies and raise productivity and ultimately the incomes of a large part of the world’s population. The same process has been underway in many countries with close ties to the European Union or other developed economies.

But this progress has proved to be very uneven. The economic dynamism shown by many sub-Saharan African countries has not yet been sufficient to outpace the enormous and growing needs of people in that region. In the Southern Mediterranean and Europe’s Eastern Neighbourhood, progress has been too slow in terms of convergence of living standards towards those in the European Union. While countries in the Western Balkans region have overall benefited from improved security and closer connections to the European Union, other countries around the Mediterranean and to Europe’s east have been held back by a weak business environment and concerns about stability and security. Unemployment remains a key issue, particularly for young people, with youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa standing at 28% and rising to 49% among young women.[1]

“ Economic growth has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in recent decades, but progress has been very uneven. „

COVID-19 has intensified development challenges around the world…

In addition to causing a tragic loss of lives, the pandemic was a massive shock to the world economy. While most developed economies were able to deploy large-scale programmes of support for businesses to help cushion the impact and ensure business continuity, most middle- and lower-income countries had less fiscal flexibility to do so. It has been estimated that the pandemic pushed an additional 93 million people into poverty in 2020.[2]

Mitigating the negative effects of the pandemic was a major focus of EIB lending outside the European Union in 2020 and 2021. Indeed, the consequences of the pandemic will be felt in the medium and long term, well beyond the direct impact of the initial lockdowns. One consequence is the impaired financial health of businesses, which may negatively affect the strength of recovery, investment and employment creation for some time. Smaller businesses are especially affected as they typically have little recourse to longer-term lending to cushion the shock, with many effectively disconnected from the banking sector. For example, before the pandemic, as much as 62% of formal sector businesses in the emerging economies of the Middle East and North Africa reported needing a loan, but factors such as high collateral requirements and interest rates discouraged them from applying for one, expecting rejection. Much employment, meanwhile, is not even in formal businesses but in the informal sector (often more than 90% in sub-Saharan Africa) where recourse to credit or public support is extremely restricted.[3]

“ The pandemic pushed an additional 93 million people into poverty. „

A further effect of the pandemic has been on public finances, from the implementation of fiscal support measures to the loss of public revenues. The recovery that began in most of the world economy in 2021 brought some relief. But the rise in global commodity prices that has accompanied the recovery since early 2021 has had mixed effects, benefiting some commodity exporters but also exacerbating trade imbalances and undermining food security in countries dependent on imports. Rising borrowing costs due to monetary normalisation in developed economies has put further pressure on the public finances of developing economies, with eight countries already in debt distress as of April 2022.

“ Rising borrowing costs due to monetary normalisation in developed economies has put further pressure on the public finances of developing economies. „

…as has the invasion of Ukraine

The focus of this report is EIB development finance in 2021, as well as the impacts of past lending, but of course we observe the additional stress created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. This will have stark consequences for development prospects, most particularly across the Eastern Neighbourhood and Central Asia, where losses of export demand, remittance flows and tourism revenues are likely to have a major negative impact, alongside the effect of increased instability and uncertainty on investment. Other low and middle-income countries around the world are likely to be affected particularly by further upward pressure on food and energy prices. Risks are highest for food and energy importers with public finances that are already under strain. The potential exacerbation of food insecurity and financial stability is alarming.

“ Risks are highest for food and energy importers with public finances that are already under strain. „

The climate transition is both a challenge and an opportunity for development

A global green transition is now both imperative and extremely urgent. Countries that have achieved a high level of development by relying on fossil fuels have a special responsibility not only to decarbonise their own economies, but to assist in the transition and sustainable development of others. The three key priorities are: to replace fossil fuels in the current energy mix; achieve economic growth and development goals with minimal new emissions; and build resilience to climate change in all countries.

According to the International Energy Agency, investments in clean energy in developing and emerging economies (excluding China) need to expand by more than seven times, to above $1 trillion, to be on track for net-zero global carbon emissions by 2050.[4] This investment is needed both to replace fossil fuels within the existing energy mix and to ensure universal access to energy and enable rising standards of living. An estimated 770 million people still live without access to electricity, mostly in Africa and developing countries in Asia. To achieve the sustainable development goal of universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services by 2030, we need to connect almost 100 million people every year with those services, via an annual investment of around $35 billion.[5]

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