Declaring war on plastic to save our oceans: the world’s major climate financiers EIB, KfW and AFD launch a 2-billion euros initiative

Ahead of the IMF/World Bank Group meetings, KfW Group on behalf of the German Federal Government, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Agence Française de Developpement (AFD) launched the Clean Oceans Initiative to support the development and implementation of sustainable projects that will reduce pollution in the world’s oceans over the next five years. This partnership will provide EUR 2-billion long-term financing for projects aiming at reducing marine litter, especially plastics, as well as untreated wastewater discharge, with a view to crowding-in private sector investment.

The Clean Oceans Initiative will provide innovative financing structures catering for the needs of private enterprises of varying size, including micro-enterprises, and for research and innovation projects.

The Clean Oceans Initiative is global in nature but will focus particularly on operations in riverine and coastal areas in developing countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, since ninety percent of plastic waste enters the oceans through 10 major river systems located in Africa and Asia, where access to regular waste collection and controlled waste disposal often lacks.

The Clean Oceans Initiative will notably target the following sectors:

• Collection, pre-treatment and recycling of waste and particularly plastics collected on land, from rivers and from the sea;
• Improved waste management in ports and harbors to support the reduction of marine littering from ships and transport on water;
• Support to plastic prevention measures, market development for recycling plastics and other materials and public awareness building;
• Support to the implementation of wastewater treatment plants that enable reduction in the discharge of plastics and other pollutants to rivers and oceans.

KfW CEO Dr. Günther Bräunig said: “For KfW, the comprehensive and consistent focus on sustainability will be one of the major challenges in the years ahead. To this end, we have committed ourselves to an ambitious “Sustainable Finance Roadmap” and plan to embed the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the German Federal Government’s sustainability strategy into our sustainability model.”

Original source: EIB
Published on 12 October 2018