Financing

The sustainable finance regulation is a key opportunity to unlock the access to public and private finance for key renewable energy technologies, allowing the EU to implement its decarbonisation objectives. The implementation of the sustainable finance regulation, the establishment of a sustainable finance framework and the financing of sustainable investment however requires stakeholders to understand the needs of specific technologies that actively contribute to these objectives.

The EIB Group has organised a second round of stakeholder consultation in order to collect more inputs regarding the Bank’s ambition to become the EU’s first Climate Bank.

The GEORISK Consortium sent an open letter to DG Energy Director-General Ditte Juul Jørgensen, European Commission, calling for the establishment of an EU risk management scheme for geothermal energy. In particular, this scheme should be tied to instruments that structure the European energy market such as TEN-E or the Connecting Europe Facility.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has declared its ambition to become the EU’s first Climate Bank. It will restructure its financial services for climate and environmental projects and will align all its financial operations in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

Inception Impact Assessment on a Delegated Regulation on a climate change mitigation and adaptation.

On 14 January 2020 the European Commission proposed a Just Transition Mechanism to mobilise at least €100 billion (over the period 2021-2027) to support regions most affected by the transition towards the zero-carbon economy.

Following the proposal in the PPE (multiannual programming for energy) by the French Government to stop financial support to geothermal electricity, EGEC and the French industry call for a stable and forward looking framework.

The European Investment Bank is the largest public development bank, providing financing to a wide array of projects, notably in the energy sector. Yesterday, the EIB reached an agreement that it would stop providing funding to fossil fuel projects from 2022 owards.

The European Investment Bank is currently in the process of drafting its updated energy lending policy. As the European Union is progressing towards decarbonisation, and the 2050 horizon is nearing quickly, EGEC joined other industry associations and think tanks to call for the EIB to promptly stop funding fossil fuel projects.

Sustainable finance is an increasingly important topic in European policy making. A proposed regulation by the European Commission on this topic will have a major impact on the private financial sector, and its relationship with geothermal and other renewable energy investments.