Position on Recast of Drinking Water Directive

The European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) welcomes the European Parliament report on the recast of the Drinking Water Directive as well the General approach of Council on the Drinking Water Directive. The recast of the Drinking Water Directive signifies a step in the right direction in updating the legislative framework to the challenges faced by the drinking water sector.
In view of the ongoing trilogues, the European Alliance to Save Energy would like to highlight that we strongly support the European Parliament’s position on:

• the mandatory introduction of Member State water leakage reduction targets
• and requirements for water utilities to publicly disclose information on water leakage rates and energy performance

As such, we ask to support these measures throughout the trilogue negotiations process with a view to including them in the finally agreed text.

We also suggest compromise proposals which would help reduce the amount of non-revenue water and improve the energy efficiency of the water sector.

For any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Dear President,
Dear Vice Presidents,
Dear Members of the Board,

As representatives of the investment, business and scientific communities, we believe
we are facing a climate emergency with devastating consequences for the planet and livelihood
of all citizens. 2020 is a “Super Year” for international policy action. It is the 75th anniversary
of the United Nations. It is the first real opportunity for nations and financial institutions to
increase climate ambition and meet 2050 net-zero goals.

This decade must be a turning point, the moment when the world bends the curve, averts impending climate and biodiversity disasters and opts instead to embark on the fastest economic transformation in our history. We therefore believe that financial institutions and businesses must align their operations with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and shift capital away from high- carbon investments by2020. As such, we applaud the great leadership of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and its Management Committee in publishing a more ambitious draft energy lending policy in July 2019 and welcome the recognition that net-zero emissions are necessary to stay within 1.5 degrees of global warming.

Your aspiration to “stop lending to fossil-fuel energy projects by the end of 2020” and focus on the “energy efficiency first principle”, renewable energy and the necessity to support a “just transition” for workers in high-carbon sectors, has sent an important signal to financial markets and institutions across the globe. Your progressive leadership will set an historical example, and we will work to ensure that other institutions like yours follow by making similar immediate-term commitments to a sustainable future.

If the EIB is to become a genuine climate bank and play a pivotal role in a European Green Deal, and in European lending policy across all financial institutions, then it must not subsidise fossil fuel projects whose lifetimes are likely to extend into the second half of this century.
We hope and expect that the EIB will deliver on its plans and swiftly confirm this level of ambition in its policy, in support of the goal of climate neutrality as the target for all future investment decisions of the EIB.

This is a unique opportunity for the EIB – the EU Bank – to help avert climate breakdown, by putting itself at the heart of Europe’s transition to a fossil-free economy and show real leadership.

The signatories of this letter assure you of their support in the phase-out of public lending to fossil fuel projects and the shift to low-carbon public and private investments.

We offer our assistance to the EIB in implementing the 2020 deadline and will work with other financial institutions to ensure they follow your lead.

Our sincere regards,

The Club of Rome
AQAL Group
B-CORP
BIOENERGY EUROPE
CBI
CLGEurope
E3G
EBAN
EGEC
EHAP
Equality Moonshot
EREF
ESTELA
EUREC
EUROACE
European Alliance to Save Energy
FNG
FORUM Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften
GABV
GLS Bank
OCEAN ENERGY EUROPE
PIK
PIRAEUS BANK
SOLAR HEAT EUROPE
TBLI Group
TRIODOS
UNPRI
WAM Wermuth Asset Management
WBGU Germany Advisory Council on Global Change
We Mean Business

Brussels, 6 September 2019

Dear Chairman Mr Hoyer,

Subject: Retooling Europe’s energy investments landscape to sustain growth and meet future societal and environmental challenges.

I am writing to you on behalf of the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE). EU-ASE is multi-sectoral business led organization whose members operate across the 28 Member States of the European Union, with an aggregated annual turnover of €115 bn, directly employing 340.000 people in Europe. Our aim is to reach out to decision makers to promote and show evidence of the key role that energy efficiency technologies and solutions play in decarbonizing the energy system and generate economic growth and employment in the European Union.

We welcome the EIB’s proposed new energy lending policy. The recognition of the Energy Efficiency First principle in the EIB energy lending assessments is a turning point in the way public and private funds are to be allocated. This approach, aligned with your 2018/2019 Investment Report, will stimulate rational and financially sound investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation and generate positive externalities in terms of growth, jobs creation and energy security.

We also fully support the bank’s proposal to phase out, by the end of 2020, investments in fossil fuels projects and infrastructures and its strategic focus on the reduction of energy demand through energy efficiency measures, the reinforcement of electricity networks and demand side response mechanism and the development low-carbon power generation and storage. Such a move will align the bank’s spending with the EU’s commitment under the Paris Agreement and bring about the necessary investments to truly set the EU’s energy system on a path to climate neutrality, all the while strengthening Europe’s security of supply.

We consider the proposed European Initiative for Building Renovation and the reinforcement of technical and financial advisory services to project developers and public authorities as essential pieces of the new policy. Such innovations will channel investments in an area with high potential for large CO2 abatement and will help partners, notably southern and eastern countries, to scale up investments in the region.

The proposed EIB energy lending policy is a game changer that comes at a very important point in time, when we all face the urgency to address the devastating impact of the climate crisis on our economy and on the more disadvantaged groups of our society. With this letter we would like to provide our support for the endorsement of this new approach at the next meeting of the Board of Directors. This new lending policy will have a positive roll-on effect on other banks across Europe and worldwide and will be crucial to leverage the investments necessary to face the social, economic and environmental challenges that 2050 climate neutrality implies.

Best regards,
Monica Frassoni, President of the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE)