Financing

EGEC sent an official letter to the members of the Platform on Sustainable Finance to ensure that the “Full list of Technical Screening Criteria” in Annex B accurately reflects the environmental benefits of geothermal technologies.

As the European Commission prepares criteria for supplementary Delegated Act in Autumn, NGOs outline how including gas in the Taxonomy would turn it into a greenwashing tool, completely undermining its credibility and sending a disastrous global signal.

EGEC’s contribution is focused on three main priorities:

Today EGEC sent a letter to the European Commission Executive Vice President on the European Green Deal, the Executive Vice President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age and the Commissioner on Energy. This letter was asking for the implementation of a fair framework for State Aid, that allow European Member States to support the development of innovative technologies and the market uptake of geothermal energy, notably in the heating and cooling sector.

In its statement, EGEC strongly highlighted that fossil methane does not have a role in the EU’s Sustainable Finance Taxonomy Regulation.

The European Commission will review and update the EU State Aid framework for energy and environment by the end of 2021.

EGEC Members are invited to provide feedback by 07/01/2021 to the European Commission questionnaire on the review of the State Aid Guidelines. This questionnaire notably looks to identify the most relevant ways to direct state aid to the efficient market uptake of renewable energy technologies.

EGEC welcomes the European Commission’s call to revise its competition policy that will support the successful implementation of the European Green Deal.

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.