The European Investment is setting up a Clean Bus Financiang Facility that will provide € 15 mln funding to clean bus projects already this year. “We have two basic lines of action. One is energy efficiency and the other is public transport. Our intention is to use new technologies like hydrogen or hybrid buses to be implemented in cities using green public procurement rules”, said Mario Aymerich of the EIB. Funding will go to projects that can demonstrate their ability to deliver on the EU’s so-called 20-20-20 policy of reducing greenhouse gases by 20% by 2020, and covering 20% of its energy needs with renewables by the same date, he explained. The EIB is currently working with the European Commission to set up a 15 million euro fund to offer cities “technical assistance” in developing projects. The facility has not yet been officially approved, but this should be announced “in the coming days,” Aymerich said.”Once the projects are there, we can really start talking numbers,” said Nick Antonovics, a spokesperson for the EIB. “We’re talking about projects for big cities,” he added, saying these could reach “billions”.According to Aymerich, “the new element of this facility is that, instead of financing up to 50% of the total cost of projects, we could arrive up to 75% of the total cost”.