Five European national promotional banks & institutions and the European Investment Bank (EIB) launched the Joint Initiative on Circular Economy to support the development and implementation of circular economy projects and programmes in the European Union (EU). This partnership will target at least EUR 10 billion of investments over the next five years with the aim to prevent and eliminate waste, increase resource efficiency and foster innovation by promoting circularity in all sectors of the economy.
The participating banks & institutions include Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK – Poland), Groupe Caisse des Dépôts (CDC – France) including Bpifrance, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP – Italy), Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO – Spain) and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW – Germany)/
The Joint Initiative on Circular Economy (JICE) will provide loans, equity investment or guarantees to eligible projects and develop innovative financing structures for public and private infrastructure, municipalities, private enterprises of different size as well as for research and innovation projects.
“Fighting global warming and environmental crises is the most urgent challenge of our time. Strengthening the circular economy is one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal. It will not only help achieve the Paris Agreement targets but also bring huge benefits for the economy and society. With the Joint Initiative on Circular Economy, we are scaling up our ambition and joining forces with our peers to stem the tide of waste”, said EIB President Dr. Werner Hoyer.
The joint initiative will focus particularly on investments in the EU Member States that will help accelerate the transition to a circular economy. It will target all stages of the value chain and lifecycle of products and services:
- Circular design and production: applying “reduce and recycle” strategies to design out waste at the source, prior to commercialisation.
- Circular use and life extension: enabling the reuse, repair, repurposing, refurbishing or remanufacturing of products in use phase
- Circular value recovery: recovering materials and other resources from waste, recovering waste heat and/or reusing treated wastewater
- Circular support: facilitating circular strategies in all lifecycle phases, for example with the deployment of key ICT technologies, digitalization and services supporting circular business models and circular value chains
