EUR 10 billion to support the Circular Economy in the EU

Frankfurt am Main (ots) - The EU's largest national promotional
banks and institutions and the European Investment Bank launch a EUR
10 billion initiative to accelerate the transition to a sustainable
and circular economy

Five European national promotional banks & institutions and the
European Investment Bank (EIB) launched today in Luxembourg the Joint
Initiative on Circular Economy to support the development and
implementation of circular economy projects and programmes in the
European Union (EU). This flagship partnership will target at least
EUR 10 billion of investments over the next five years (2019 - 2023).
The aim is to prevent and eliminate waste, increase resource
efficiency and foster innovation by promoting circularity in all
sectors of the economy.

The five national promotional banks & institutions are:

- 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)
- Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW - Germany)

The six partner institutions will combine their expertise,
experience and financial capacity to better support the
implementation of viable circular projects and programme approaches.
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. JICE builds on the
ongoing initiatives led by the European Commission to build knowledge
through dedicated working groups and develop financing schemes.

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.

Quotes

EIB President Dr. Werner Hoyer said: "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 for Circular Economy, we are scaling up our
ambition and joining forces with our peers to stem the tide of
waste."

BGK President of the Management Board Beata Daszynska-Muzyczka
said: "At BGK we are convinced that sustainable development with a
circular economy is an expression of responsibility for future
generations. We are pleased that, together with our partners, we
develop such important solutions that will support innovative,
environmentally friendly investments in the European Union. The
approach is in line with the Polish government Roadmap for Circular
Economy based on The EU Circular Economy Strategy. The roadmap is
stressing 4 priorities: supporting innovations, creating European
market for recycled materials, ensuring high quality recycled
materials, developing the service sector."

CDC CEO Eric Lombard said: "With this Joint initiative, Caisse des
Dépôts Group aims to support further circular projects in France and
together with our European counterparts, to highlight the full
potential of circular economy to achieve sustainable growth while
creating new economic opportunities for our territories."

CDP CEO Fabrizio Palermo said: "The 2019-21 CDP Business Plan for
the first time aims at integrating sustainability into our strategic
choices. CDP is committed to foster a paradigm shift toward a more
sustainable and inclusive development model in Italy with a focus on
local communities. This European partnership shows once again how
crucial is the role of National Promotion Institutions (NPIs) to
achieve adequate sustainable growth and development at European and
global level".

ICO Chairman José Carlos Garcia de Quevedo said: "ICO aims to
promote inclusive economic growth and to transition to more
sustainable development. Support for alternatives such as the
circular economy perfectly aligns with the SDGs and with the public
policies covered internationally in the 2030 Agenda, including the EU
Sustainable Finance Action Plan and the Spanish national Change
Agenda. As public promotion banks, we have a clear leadership
responsibility in this field and a great commitment to enhance
collaboration among European institutions."

KfW CEO Dr. Günther Bräunig said: "KfW has always been focused on
sustainability: About 40% of our financing already accounts for
environmental and climate protection. But no country can handle the
huge challenges in this field on its own. That's why it's of utmost
importance to join forces with our European partners. The
conservation of our natural resources is a pivotal task for all of
us, and we have to devote more attention to this issue. The shift to
a circular economy will play a key role here, and our joint
initiative is a first step to achieve this goal."

Press contacts:
Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK - Poland):
Anna Czyz, media@bgk.pl tel: +4822 599 80 67

Groupe Caisse des Dépôts (CDC - France) - Press department:
service.presse@caissedesdepots.fr +33 1 58 50 40 00

Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP - Italy):
Francesco Mele, francesco.mele@cdp.it, tel.: +39-06 4221 2435

Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO - Spain):
Begoña Amores, Begonia.amores@ico.es, tel.: +34 915921641

European Investment Bank:
Andrea Morawski, a.morawski@eib.org, tel.: +352 4379 - 83427, mobile:
+352-691-284-349, Website: www.eib.org/press - Press Office: +352
4379 21000 - press@eib.org

Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW - Germany):
Wolfram Schweickhardt, Wolfram.Schweickhardt@kfw.de, tel.: +49
69-7431-1778, mobile: +49-174-3166502

Original-Content von: KfW, übermittelt durch news aktuell