COP25 - EIB and Iberdrola sign two financing agreements for EUR 690m for renewable energy projects in Brazil and new digitalisation of electrical networks

At the Climate Change Conference (COP25) being held in Madrid, the EIB and Iberdrola announced two new agreements to promote climate action by investing in renewable energy projects and electricity distribution networks. To do so, the Vice-President of the EU bank Emma Navarro and the President of Iberdrola Ignacio Galán agreed two loans for a total of EUR 690m.

EIB Vice-President Emma Navarro, head of climate action at the Bank and its operations in Spain and Latin America, remarked: “We are delighted to be signing these agreements at the Madrid Climate Change Conference because they are a great example of the EIB’s efforts to support climate action inside and outside of Europe. To fulfill the objectives of the Paris Agreement, we need to mobilise resources on an unprecedented scale, and the EIB is seeking to lead the response to this challenge. We are the EU’s climate bank, and that is why we have strengthened our climate ambition. We are working on mobilising up to EUR 1tn over the coming decade through projects that, like the ones we are supporting today, are going to help with the transition towards a low-carbon economy by promoting renewable energies.”

Of the EUR 690m total, EUR 250m will go to financing the construction of 15 wind farms to be developed in the country by Neoenergia, the Iberdrola subsidiary in Brazil. These new facilities will be located in three states in the northeast: Paraíba, Bahía and Piauí. Once operational, they will have a total installed power of 520 MW and produce an annual average of 2 300 GWh of clean energy. Commissioning these wind farms will help to reduce CO₂ emissions and increase the proportion of renewable energy in the country’s electricity generation. The investments in these new wind farms will be made over a five-year period and will enable the creation of 2 300 jobs.

By supporting this project, the EU bank is helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. The EIB has been working in Latin America for some 30 years and one of the major priorities in the region is to promote climate action.

Original source: EIB
Published on 05 December 2019