The European Investment Bank been active in India for almost three decades and has financed over 35 projects with nearly 4.6 billion euros. Powegrid was the first project it financed in in 1993 for 55 million euros, and more recently, it loaned 150 million euros to the Pune metro rail network for a 20-year period.

The investment for the recent metro rail project would improve travel for over 3 million people in the city, would shorten time travel, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also create at least 900 new jobs on completion, the bank said.

While the investment bank has financed projects in various sectors such as agriculture, water, credit lines, etc, the major chunk has gone towards the transport (53.32 percent) and energy (36.69 percent) sectors.

Source: European Investment Bank official website

It has now also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Hydrogen Alliance and has committed to invest 1 billion euros over the next few years in green hydrogen projects.

"The India Hydrogen Alliance is a very important organisational coalition and there we announced we are able to invest 1 billion euros in India when there are concrete projects regarding green energy. We also signed an MoU with this alliance," said Kris Peeters, Vice-President, European Investment Bank.

Peeters said the bank hopes to finance important projects such as metros, public transport, infrastructure and also green energy projects such as hydrogen, among others.

Also Read: Economic Survey: India's progress in tackling climate change

"Climate is very important for us because we are also the climate bank of Europe — not only active in Europe, but also outside of it as well. Once again, India can and must be a very important player not only limited to the country, but also in the neighbourhood countries and I hope that with our endeavour, with our possibilities and knowledge we can contribute to make this possible," he said.

Elaborating further, Peeters said the bank is keen on discussing climate financing and adaptation in and outside Europe. "Therefore, we are there. We need the projects. We stimulate every country and certainly India, to have these projects, and then we can come on board and have a solution. When you talk about the finance, I hope that financing the climate projects is one of the most important issues at this moment," he added

On India's G20 Presidency

India has assumed the G20 Presidency for this year and the next summit would be held in the country on September 9 and 10.

Peeters thinks it is very important that India has now taken over the presidency of the G20. "When you look at what is going on in the world, when you look at the war in Ukraine, for example, we need multilateralism, we need to discuss with all the members of the G20 what the problems are. This is the first element and we are very eager to see what this presidency for India can mean and what also be the result," he said.

The second point he brought up was climate change and a lot of issues related to it and how a lot of money is required for the same, both from the public and private sectors. "And then we need innovative ideas of how we can finance. For example, once again, this green hydrogen project. How can we convince people that investing in climate projects is so important and it is, of course, very important to have this G20 debate — this dialogue — with all the other countries. And I am convinced that India shall play a very important role to make G20 a success," he added.

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