Climate & Infrastructure Funds

The Climate & Infrastructure Funds (C&IFs) is a new business line within the EIF. This is following a restructuring within the EIB Group, whereby this business line was transferred from the EIB to the EIF at the beginning of 2021.

The facility is currently composed of two funding sources with a total investment capacity of EUR 400-600 million annually during the next 7 years. Further funding sources are likely to follow in the near future.

The EIF’s Climate and Infrastructure fund investments have a primary focus on climate action & environmental sustainability. Targeting a 70% climate content at portfolio level, the underlying investments are expected to be a substantial contributor to the ambitious targets set out in the EIB Group Climate Bank Roadmap.

Key policy areas will be focusing on a variety of priority sectors and will include green energy transition, energy efficiency, digital economy, sustainable mobility, circular economy, urban development and social infrastructure.

How do the Climate & Infrastructure Funds work?

The C&IFs facility makes equity investments in funds and side vehicles of funds providing equity or equity-type debt capital to infrastructure assets. The EIF’s investee funds will predominantly focus on greenfield or other capex-related investments (expansion, refurbishment, etc.) primarily in the EU-27 alongside neighbouring countries (see below geographical eligibility).

The EIF will support circa 8 to 12 funds per year with operations targeting financial intermediaries focusing mainly on greenfield investments, climate action and environmental sustainability.

What are the eligibility criteria for the intermediaries and target companies?

In order to meet the set of established eligibility criteria, the intermediary/target company should comply with the below:

• Invest in infrastructure projects: directly (i.e. in SPVs) or through developers, OpCos, and similar;
• Operate within eligible sectors such as renewable energy generation and enabling infrastructure, energy efficiency, sustainable transport, digital connectivity, social infrastructure, urban development, circular economy and natural resources;
• At least 60% of an investee fund’s capital is to be invested in greenfield, expansion or retrofit/ refurbishment projects in the targeted sectors and located in the EU27;
• All fund investments need to respect EIB Group Core Requirements with regards to ESG, AML/CFT and procurement, and need to be Paris-aligned;
• Restricted sector activities that conflict with EIF and IEU’s mission must be fully excluded from the fund’s investment strategy;
• The geographical outreach should be mainly EU-27 member states or neighboring countries (EFTA, Europe Enlargement Policy, Europe Neighbourhood Policy).