The European Investment Bank (EIB) granted the first Green loan of €100 to Gruppo CAP (Milan Metropolitan area, Italy) to improve the coverage, quality and resilience of integrated water services in Milan. 

The financing will support the company's four-year Sustainability Plan, which includes €200 million for 44 projects aiming to minimise losses on its over 6 400 km of the water network, improve the quality of water delivered and treated, enhance and improve its over 6 600 km of sewerage network, implement circular economy projects, and drastically reduce energy dependency and climate-changing emissions.

These operations are vital to managing rainwater and improving the resilience of the system to climate change. They will optimise the process for reducing energy use and sewage sludge, and will continue to recover energy from waste with projects such as the Sesto San Giovanni Bioplatform, a combined waste-to-energy and wastewater treatment plant and an Italian first for industrial symbiosis with zero CO₂ emissions. The works will also be assessed in line with the Paris Agreements and the low-carbon targets of the EIB’s Climate Bank Roadmap.

This is one of the EIB's first green loans to the Italian water sector and aims to enhance Gruppo CAP's water management via a series of sustainability, climate action and environmental projects.

The EIB is the EU climate bank and one of the world's largest lenders to the water sector, with over 1 600 projects and almost €79 billion in funding. In 2021, the EIB provided about €1.63 billion in financing for water projects, helping to give around 10 million people better access to drinking water.

Read more on EIB's website here