Exporting the just transition? The European Investment Bank, the European Green Deal and environmental and social rules for green projects outside the EU

Abstract The European Union’s European Green Deal (EGD) aims for a just transition to carbon neutrality both within and beyond its borders. This contribution to the special issue on the external dimensions of the EGD focuses on the role of the European Investment Bank (EIB). As a newly declared climate bank and a major funder of ‘green’ projects, the EIB’s role in this vein deserves attention. Do the environmental and social principles the EIB uses to judge funding applications contribute to an environmentally just transition? We explore this question by identifying key issues in impact assessment processes in the literature, brought into focus through an original illustrative case study on the Gibe III hydroelectric dam inaugurated in 2016 in Ethiopia, and linking these to three central aspects of Environmental Justice: recognitional, procedural and redistributive justice. This forms the basis for an analysis of the EIB’s environmental and social statements over time, and a reflection on how far current rules address critical issues. While the EIB’s rules pay increasing attention to critical issues such as the content of Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs), and questions around inclusion, timing, and trust, their contribution to a just transition could be strengthened by sharing responsibility for impact assessments with funding applicants and including rules about their co-design. A bottom-up approach to environmental and social issues could contribute to building shared norms amongst funders and a more universal adoption of ESIAs, and to strengthening networks of grassroots expertise to tackle power asymmetries.