This cluster aims at reducing environmental degradation, halting and reversing the decline of biodiversity on land, inland waters and sea and better
managing natural resources through transformative changes of the economy and society in both urban and rural areas.
Areas of intervention
This cluster aims to fight climate change by better understanding its causes, evolution, risks, impacts and opportunities, and by making the energy and transport sectors are more climate and environment-friendly, more efficient and competitive, smarter, safer and more resilient.
Areas of intervention
fi-compass is a platform for advisory services on financial instruments under the European Structural and Investment funds (ESIF) and microfinance under the Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI).
fi-compass is designed to support ESIF managing authorities, EaSI microfinance providers and other interested parties, by providing practical know-how and learning tools on financial instruments.
The European investment advisory hub (EIAH) aims to strengthen support for project development and preparation by assisting Member States and other promoters to identify investment needs and to prioritise, prepare and structure projects in the EU. Assistance can also be delivered during project implementation phase to ensure successful delivery.
The InvestEU Portal allows project promoters to reach investors that they may not be able to reach otherwise. The Portal continues the work started under the European Investment Project Portal (EIPP) and is the online EU ‘marketplace’ connecting EU-based project promoters to investors worldwide. It provides project promoters with more options to finance their projects
Adding projects to the portal is free of charge.
Eligible projects:
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:
A revolving loan fund is a source of money from which loans are made for multiple sustainable energy projects. Revolving funds can provide loans for projects that do not have access to other types of loans from financial institutions, or can provide loans at a below-market rate of interest (soft loans).
On-bill lending is a method of financing energy efficiency improvements that uses the utility bill as the repayment vehicle. Energy suppliers collect the repayment of a loan through energy bills. It leverages the relationship, which exists between a utility and its customer in order to facilitate access to funding for sustainable energy investments.
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.
Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) is a form of creative financing for capital improvement which allows funding energy upgrades from cost reductions. Under an EPC arrangement, an external organisation (Energy Service Company - ESCO) implements a project to deliver energy efficiency, or a renewable energy project, and uses the stream of income from the cost savings or the renewable energy produced to repay the costs of the project (including the costs of the investment). Essentially, the ESCO will not receive its payment unless the project delivers energy savings as expected.
