BRUSSELS, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Europe's gas industry lobbywarned on Monday that curbs on lending by the EuropeanInvestment Bank (EIB) and others could slow the switch fromcoal-fired to less polluting gas-fired power plants and harm thebloc's climate ambitions.
The EIB's board, made up mostly of European Union financeministers, is expected to discuss a proposal this month to stopfunding new fossil fuel-reliant projects by the end of 2020,though a final decision could take longer.
"That is a major mistake," Eurogas president PhilippeSauquet, director of gas, renewables and power at France's Total, told Reuters.
"If the EIB is taking a position and is not making anydifference between all the fossil fuels, we will have difficultyto ... replace the current fleet of coal-fired power plants andwe will miss our climate targets."
The EU's incoming chief executive, Ursula von der Leyen, hascalled for the EIB to spend half of the roughly 70-80 billioneuros-a-year ($77-$88 billion) it invests on green projects, aspart of an effort to ramp up the EU's climate goals.
Eurogas, which has backed a push by most EU nations for thebloc to go carbon neutral by 2050, said the quickest way tocutting global warming emissions was replacing coal-fired powerplants.
"This is possible. We can go even further in terms oftargets, but we have to go for gas because that is the realkey," Sauquet said. "If you are not making a difference betweenfossil fuels, you are missing a real opportunity to go greenerquicker."
The industry has yet to win over the support of climateactivists, who have lobbied for an end to fossil fuel subsidiesand a redirecting of investments into renewable energies.
($1 = 0.9068 euros)
(Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Mark Potter)