European Union lends China €500 million to fight climate change

The European Union's financing arm, the European Investment Bank, said on Friday it had granted a €500 million loan to China to help it mitigate climate change through alternative energy investments.  

The loan will be targeted at onshore wind, biomass, solar, geothermal and other renewable energy projects, as well as  improving energy efficiency, the bank said.  

The deal follows on from an initial €500 million loan offered to China in 2007, also to deal with climate change.

"I would like to share with you that all the projects that  benefited from the first-batch of the loan performed effectively by cutting 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide  annually," bank vice-president Magdalena Alvarez Arza told reporters in Beijing.

China acknowledged last month that it was the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases stoking global warming, confirming what scientists have said for years, but defended its right to keep increased emissions as the economy grew.

The latest round of United Nations talks on fighting global warming began in Mexico this week.