trans adriatic pipeline

Europe’s Biggest Fossil Fuel Project Gets €1.5 Billion Public Backing

The European Investment Bank has approved a loan to the Southern Gas Corridor, in a move environmentalists described as a “historical mistake.”

The announcement by the EIB board brings the total public backing for Europe’s biggest fossil fuel project to $3.5 bn. Credit: Reuters

The European Investment Bank (EIB) approved loans worth €1.5 billion ($1.86bn) on Tuesday to a pipeline project to ship gas from Azerbaijan to Italy.

The loans went to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (Tap), a section of pipe that will complete a 3,500km continent-joining conduit known as the Southern Gas Corridor. The Tap starts in northern Greece, traverse Albania and run beneath the sea to southern Italy.

The announcement by the EIB board brings the total public backing for Europe’s biggest fossil fuel project to $3.5 bn. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have already committed loans.

Environment campaigners responded with dismay, arguing that large investments in fossil fuels would discourage investment in cleaner forms of energy.

“We witnessed today a historical mistake by the EIB,” said Xavier Sol, director of Counter Balance. “A self-styled green finance champion which has shown its true colours. The bank is showing its poor consideration of climate challenges, as well as its disregard for the problematic human rights situation in Turkey and Azerbaijan.”

Colin Roche, extractives campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said: “The European Investment Bank is now shamelessly locking Europe into decades of fossil fuel dependency, even as the window for fossil fuel use is slamming shut.”

Representative Image. Credit: Reuters

Some of the gas will be drawn from fields in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian sea. Pipeline operators have also signed agreements to allow Russia to use the pipeline. Last year, Azerbaijan withdrew from the global extractive industry watchdog after repeated failures to meet human rights standards. But multilateral banks have not been deterred.

Climate Home News reported last year that the EIB had been lobbied by the European Commission vice president Maroš Šefčovič and climate and energy commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete to lend their support to the project.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman said the commission welcomed the decision: “Forming part of the Southern Gas Corridor, Tap is an important project that will increase Europe’s security of supply by diversifying gas routes and contributing to market integration and the energy transition.”

“By bringing Caspian gas to the EU, the Southern Gas Corridor is a key project for EU energy security, in line with the EU’s diversification strategy under the Energy Union Strategy. Tap is also a European energy project of common interest.”

There was no response to a question Climate Home News asked about the climate change impacts of the pipeline.

This article originally appeared on Climate Home News.

Meet the People Blocking a New Gas Mega-Pipeline in Southern Italy

Local mothers, teachers, health workers, grandparents and olive farmers are leading a peaceful resistance to protect their land and their community from a planned gas mega-pipeline.

Local mothers, teachers, health workers, grandparents and olive farmers are leading a peaceful resistance to protect their land and their community.

Public meeting next to the construction site in San Foca. Credit: Alessandra Tommasi/Global Voices

In southern Italy, local mothers, teachers, health workers, grandparents and olive farmers are leading a peaceful resistance to protect their land and their community from a planned gas mega-pipeline.

Since 13 November, hundreds of police imposed a ‘red zone’ around the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) construction site, prohibiting journalists, citizens and local government officials from accessing the area.

Nevertheless, and despite facing a violent response by the police and individual fines of up to 10,000 euros, the local communities of Melendugno are determined to continue their resistance to stop the construction of the TAP.

Some of the people blocking the project

Valentina is a local artisan who is no longer willing to stand aside as public money is spent for the private gain of multinational companies. She criticises the corruption and criminal interests surrounding the projects.

Anna Maria calls herself a NoTAP grandma, fighting for the good of the land. She is motivated to protect the environment since her nephew suffers from health problems that have been caused by environmental issues.

Simone Dima is the vice mayor of Melendugno. He sees TAP as an unnecessary project that destroys the climate and the local economy, which is based on tourism and agriculture.

Francesco opposes TAP because he wants the land protected. The pipeline and gas receiving terminal is due to be built through a protected area with ancient olive groves, aquifers, pristine forest and a stunning coastline.

Aurora is a young woman who takes action to resist an imposed and unwanted project that the state helps a multinational consortium to build without letting the people have their say and despite local opposition for the past six years, straight from the start of the project.

Sabina resists TAP, which she sees as a useless and dangerous project that threatens her livelihood in tourism in San Foca. She stresses that TAP is not just a local but a European problem that should not go ahead in Salento or anywhere else.

The locals receive increasing support as banks come under international pressure to reject the loans on which the project relies to go ahead. For example, more and more people are calling on the European Investment Bank to pledge against financing TAP to the tune of €1.5 billion.

TAP is part of the European Commission’s energy flagship project Southern Gas Corridor. The EU pushes to massively develop new gas infrastructure even though existing infrastructure is already operating below capacity and despite the fact that an expansion of the gas market is incompatible with the Paris Climate Agreement.

This article is based on content originally published on 350.org part of a partnership with Global Voices.