BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's executive will recommend making an extra 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) of loans available to help other countries combat climate change, EU sources said on Wednesday.
The proposal will come in a European Commission review of the "external lending mandate" for 2007-2013 of the EU's funding arm, the European Investment Bank (EIB).
A number of countries, including Belarus, Iraq and Libya, will also be added to the list of more than 70 territories that the EIB can lend to, the sources said.
Such funds might be used by poor countries to overhaul their energy infrastructure to cut carbon emissions, or to develop new water infrastructure as old sources dwindle.
It could also help the EU meet its pledge to provide 7.3 billion euros in "fast-track" funding for developing nations to help build trust in the years before a international climate deal is forged to replace the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2013.
The EIB's overseas lending mandate amounts to 25.8 billion euros across 2007-2013, but an additional 2 billion euros reserve was set aside in 2006.
"The Commission will propose releasing that 2 billion now, related to climate change lending," one of the sources said.
(Reporting by Pete Harrison, editing by Timothy Heritage)
