500 Million to Spend on Climate Change

If you were given 500 million euros to spend on fighting climate change, how would you use it? The Chinese government now has the same dilemma thanks to a loan from the European Investment Bank. The fund is worth just under 660 million dollars and will be used to benefit the areas of energy, industry and urban infrastructure.

CRI's Dominic Swire has the story.

The European Investment Bank is loaning the Chinese government 500 million euros. The money will be made available to projects that promote energy efficiency, develop renewable energy or reduce pollution.

Vice President of the European Investment Bank Mrs Magdalena Alvarez Arza says the overall aim of the project is to help China cut down its global greenhouse gas emissions.

"When all individual projects are operational, we estimate that some 3 million tones of Co2 will be saved each year."

The European Investment Bank and the Chinese government have together drawn up strict criteria which organizations must meet in order to successfully apply for these funds. But Mrs Alvarez says the allocation of the money can take some time.

"The funds will be made available depending on the implementation and the scale of each individual project. Typically between one and three years."

This is not the first time the European Investment Bank has made such a loan to China. In 2007 500 million euro was loaned to the Chinese government with similar aims. So far around 80 percent of that has been allocated, funding projects including wind farms, expanding forests and reducing factory pollution across the country.

For CRI, I'm Dominic Swire.