The European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced the global rollout of its Green Checker tool, a digital platform designed to help banks, small businesses, and investors identify projects that qualify for green and sustainable financing. Initially created for use within the European Union, the tool is now being expanded to new regions including North Africa, the Middle East, the Western Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Eastern Neighbourhood to support wider access to climate-aligned investment opportunities. Unveiled at the United Nations COP30 climate conference in Belém, Brazil, the Green Checker marks a major step in the EIB’s effort to democratize access to sustainable finance and advance its Global Gateway initiative, which aims to mobilize up to €300 billion in climate and infrastructure investment between 2021 and 2027.

A Practical Tool for Green Project Identification

The Green Checker provides an integrated assessment system that allows financial institutions and enterprises to evaluate whether their investments meet EIB’s green finance eligibility criteria and align with the EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities.

Users can input project details to generate results that include:

Eligibility confirmation under EIB and EU sustainability frameworks.
Estimated energy savings and emissions reductions.
Climate impact metrics and consistency with international green standards.

Originally designed for financial intermediaries such as banks, leasing firms, and national promotional institutions, the tool is now free and publicly accessible. This opens the door for SMEs, corporates, and local entrepreneurs to independently assess their projects and identify pathways to green financing.

“The Green Checker is a transformative tool,” said Ambroise Fayolle, EIB Vice President. “It helps companies assess whether their projects meet climate and environmental criteria and determine their eligibility for EIB financing through our partner banks. We are now broadening its scope to include countries beyond Europe, accelerating climate investments globally.”

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Bridging the Green Finance Gap in Emerging Regions

The expansion of the Green Checker represents a strategic move to support emerging and developing economies, where access to sustainable finance remains constrained by complex eligibility requirements and limited data availability. To address these challenges, the EIB has simplified data entry and regionalized the assessment parameters to reflect local market realities. The upgraded version accommodates context-specific project baselines such as local energy grids, resource availability, and emission factors ensuring that small and medium-sized enterprises can more easily demonstrate their projects’ environmental value. By creating a standardized yet adaptable framework, the EIB aims to reduce the technical barriers that often prevent SMEs and mid-sized companies from qualifying for green finance, while giving partner banks confidence that funded projects meet international sustainability standards.

Supporting the Global Gateway and Climate Finance Alignment

The Green Checker’s expansion is part of the EIB’s contribution to the EU’s Global Gateway initiative, a flagship program that seeks to drive sustainable, inclusive investment across developing regions. Through the initiative, the EIB and its partners are working to channel capital into clean energy, sustainable transport, water systems, and climate-resilient infrastructure. By standardizing how green projects are screened and verified, the Green Checker helps create a common language for sustainable finance, improving transparency for investors and aligning local financing efforts with the EU’s climate neutrality goals for 2050. For partner banks, the tool also acts as a compliance accelerator, simplifying due diligence processes and ensuring that funded projects adhere to the EIB’s environmental and social safeguards.

Empowering SMEs to Access Green Capital

One of the most significant features of the Green Checker is its accessibility for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which often struggle to secure green loans due to limited resources and technical expertise. By offering a user-friendly, self-assessment interface, the tool empowers businesses to quantify their projects’ environmental benefits and prepare credible applications for sustainable financing. For SMEs in emerging markets where climate investments can deliver outsized social and economic benefits, the tool acts as both an educational resource and a financing gateway. It helps local entrepreneurs navigate the growing landscape of sustainability-linked lending, where clarity and measurable impact are prerequisites for investment.

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Advancing a Global Standard for Sustainable Investment

The EIB’s Green Checker is more than a technical platform, it’s an effort to make green finance measurable, accessible, and verifiable at scale. As governments and private investors accelerate climate commitments ahead of 2030 targets, the tool provides a vital bridge between policy ambition and project execution. By extending the platform beyond the EU, the EIB is helping to level the playing field for developing economies, ensuring that the transition to net zero is both inclusive and data-driven. In an era where global capital must be rapidly redirected toward sustainable outcomes, the Green Checker represents a practical innovation with the potential to unlock billions in new green investment, from Europe to Africa and beyond.

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