More than €2bn (£1.6bn) is to be made available for new innovative renewable energy and carbon capture projects, the European Investment Bank (EIB) has announcedThe EIB has raised the funds by completing sales of 300 million emission allowances under the NER300 financing programme, managed jointly by the European Commission, EIB and Member States.
EIB vice president Jonathan Taylor said: “The European Investment Bank is pleased to support future investment in low-carbon demonstration projects.
“Successful completion of monetisation of carbon allowances under the NER300 scheme will help both carbon capture and storage schemes and innovative renewable energy projects across Europe reach a commercial scale,” he added.

Under the second phase of NER300, €548m was raised and a total of 33 project applications were received.

During the first phase, which ended in September 2012, more than €1.5bn was raised, of which €1.2bn was awarded to 23 projects out of 79 applications examined.

“We will continue to work closely with the European Commission to ensure that the best applicants can be awarded proceeds raised from the ground-breaking NER 300 scheme,” added Taylor. Monetisation of the last 100 million EU allowances ended on 11 April, 2014 and no further sales will take place under the NER300 initiative now that the full volume has been reached.

Meanwhile, research released earlier this week showed that global ‘clean energy’ investment increased 14% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014, with the sector totalling $61bn (£36bn) in the first quarter of 2014, up from the $53.4bn invested in the corresponding period in 2013.