On April 12, 2018, the European Investment Bank (EIB) agreed to provide a 60 million euro loan to build a 50 megawatt biomass power plant in Spain. Environmental NGO ClientEarth submitted a request on August 9, 2018, to the EIB for internal review of that decision. ClientEarth disputed that the project would contribute to renewable energy objectives because, in part, it overestimated environmental advantages associated with biomass and underestimated logging and forest fire emission risks. On October 30, 2018, EIB rejected the request as inadmissible on the grounds that its financing decision was not an "administrative act" nor was the decision taken "under environmental law" as defined in the Aarhus Convention and therefore was not subject to internal review.

ClientEearth filed suit on January 8, 2019, in the EU General Court against the European Investment Bank (EIB), alleging that the bank had improperly rejected ClientEarth's petition for an internal review of the Bank's decision to finance a biomass power plant. ClientEarth argued that in rejecting its petition for internal review, the EIB misapplied the Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters.

The EU General Court issued a decision on January 27, 2021, issuing an order that the EIB must accept ClientEarth's petition for internal review. The Court found that the financing decision was taken "under environmental law" because all acts of public authorities which may violate environmental law, regardless of whether the institution is formed by environmental law, should be subject to internal review. Here the EIB's decision was based on an assessment of whether it met renewable energy goals and therefore impacted environmental law. Further, the Court found that the decision was an "administrative act" despite the terms and conditions of the loan not yet being set because it produced definitive legally binding effects on third parties by enabling others to take steps to formalize the loan.

On April 2, 2021, the EIB appealed the decision with the European Court of Justice. The EIB alleges that the General Court, under the Aarhus Convention, misconstrued the notion of an ‘administrative act’, that the EIB decision to approve the loan does not have ‘legally binding and external effect’, and that the General Court was wrong when it classified the EIB’s decision as ‘adopted under environmental law’. A decision by the Court of Justice on the appeal was issued on July 6, 2023 (EIB and Commission/ClientEarth, C-212/21 P and C-223/21 P, EU:C:2023:546).

ClientEarth v. European Investment Bank

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ClientEarth v. European Investment Bank - petition

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives