Health

Financing the energy retrofitting of buildings is a great challenge. With investments varying from 200 to 1,200 EUR/m2, access to attractive and long-term financing is perceived as the primary barrier for homeowners. Financial incentives such as grants, guarantees or soft loans for energy renovation could motivate homeowners to make the investment decision more easily.

Local and regional authorities in cooperation with financing institutions can offer to homeowners of private residential buildings:

Bond is a debt investment in which an investor loans money to an entity (typically corporate or governmental) which borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a variable or fixed interest rate. Bonds are issued by companies, municipalities, states and sovereign governments to raise money and finance their projects and activities. Green bonds are all those instruments which are used exclusively to fund qualifying green investments. They can be made attractive via tax-exemptions.

A crowd-funding platform pools resources of different actors, utilizing most of the time an internet-based platform. Crowdfunding for sustainable energy and climate projects is the natural extension of the citizen cooperative model to even larger communities. With the help of the internet, crowdfunding can draw support from people across entire countries and increasingly internationally.

Energy cooperatives refer to a business model where citizens jointly own and participate in renewable energy (RES) or energy efficiency (EE) projects. In energy cooperatives citizens are involved in both the decision making and financial & economical participation. All citizens are eligible to participate. After purchasing a cooperative share and becoming a member or co-owner of local RES and EE projects, members share in the profits and often are given the opportunity to buy the electricity at a fair price.

• Investment loans for single large investment projects

The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), with a budget of almost € 99.3 billion for the period 2021-2027, provides an important contribution to the EU’s employment, social, education and skills policies, including structural reforms in these areas.

The Fund is one of the cornerstones of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and will help address challenges related to labour participation, education and health systems and increased inequalities.