UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the European Investment Bank's landmark decision to cease funding fossil fuel projects in two years, said his spokesman on Friday.
"The secretary-general calls on all other investors to choose the right side of history," said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for Guterres.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has joined other pioneers who have wisely decided to invest solely in the clean and resilient economy which will allow the world to get to carbon neutrality by 2050 and a sustainable future, he said.
The EIB, the EU's lending arm, decided on Thursday to end all lending to fossil fuel projects by the end of 2021. The bank stopped its lending to coal in 2013.
With Thursday's decision, the EIB has become the first multilateral development bank to commit to phasing out fossil fuel funding.
Fossil energy sources include oil, coal and natural gas.
