Designing and implementing a capacity building program dedicated to the financial community aiming to boosting energy efficiency investment in the industry

Panel: 5. Business models, finance and investment

Authors:
Apolline Abauzit, GreenFlex, France
Sebastien Delpont, GreenFlex, France

Abstract

According to the IEA, the industrial sector could improve its energy intensity up to 44% between now and 2040, by investing in cost-effective and proven solutions.

Yet today, investments in such solutions remain insufficient compared with the energy saving potential. Existing financial tools and contractual schemes for investing in energy-efficient projects are not known and not used enough by industrials to be efficient and financiers of industry were weakly mobilized on this issue offering solutions not always aligned with the needs of industrial decision-makers.

To overcome these barriers and activate this potential, the capacity building program INVEEST has been designed to specifically target investment decision-makers in industrial companies (CFOs, industrial directors, etc.) and their financial stakeholders (bank advisors, accounting experts, etc.). INVEEST is willing to mobilize this public and to foster an acceleration in EE projects investment through the implementation of the 3 following actions:

– Training and supporting 1,000 actors by the end of 2020 on financing strategic energy efficiency projects, with a three-step program (e-learning preparation, 2-days training and individual tutoring)

– Providing these actors with operational tools for implementing concrete, profitable and risk-free projects

– Creating a broad and collaborative community of decision-makers around financing the low-carbon industry

INVEEST is carried out by GreenFlex, in collaboration with the French Environment and Energy Agency and under the supervision of the French Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition. It is co-funded by the French White Certificates scheme and the European Commission through the LIFE program.

Launched in September 2019, the program has already been adopted by four major French banking institutions. Hundreds of decision-makers are now involved in the INVEEST energy efficiency financing practitioner community.

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