Green investments recognized as a key driver for a more sustainable future
Now as never before in human history we need to find concrete solutions to fight climate change and contain the more and more frequent catastrophic events that our earth is experiencing.
Larger and larger is the amount of people willing to act in favour of our planet’s preservation: on the streets, in our everyday life, through our jobs, we are all starting to understand that no-action is a no-option anymore.
The European Green Deal to guide Europe against climate change
This is also why the new European Commission put at the core of its agenda for the years to come the European Green Deal, officially presented on December 11th by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as Europe's new growth strategy and a new solution to reconcile economy with our planet.
Shifting to a carbon-neutral system
The main goal of the European Green Deal is to define and guide the transition of the current European economic system towards a more sustainable future, laying the foundations for climate neutrality by 2050. To make this possible, a disruptive change in our economy must happen.
The European Green Deal, in fact, will cover several policy areas, such as biodiversity, sustainable mobility and industry, clean energy and buildings renovation[1].
To ensure the irreversibility of this transition, the Commission will propose the first European “Climate Law” by March 2020: this will preserve the 2050 climate neutrality objective in legislation and ensure that all the member states and all sectors contribute to the targets set[2].
Boosting green investments to achieve more ambitious climate and energy targets
Meeting the objectives of the European Green Deal will require significant investment. The Commission has estimated that achieving the current 2030 climate and energy targets will require €260 billion of additional annual investment[3] from both the public and private sector.
The production and use of energy, in fact, account for more than 75% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions[4], representing, therefore, a priority in the transition. In the past few years, the energy sector has moved in a positive direction, developing energy efficiency solutions and renewable sources: in 2017, 18% of the EU’s gross final energy consumption came from renewable sources[5].
The private sector as key to financing the green transition
In this context, more and more investment funds have become aware of the importance to allocate their capital towards sustainable energy projects throughout different sectors (building, transportation, agriculture, etc.) and different technologies (PV, LED lighting, battery storage, etc.).
What we, at Joule Assets Europe, have come to acknowledge is that this motivation is not enough.
The finance and energy sectors are still far from each other in terms of knowledge and skills, producing, therefore, a big communication gap that most of the time ends the relationship even before it has started. This means no projects financed, no projects implemented, thus no improvement in the market.
This is the reason why, through our activity, we are committed to connect these two sectors and bridge the gap that limits not only the increase of investments in sustainable energy projects but also the contribution to a bigger, European goal.
To know more about what we do and the European H2020 projects we are working on, visit eu.jouleassets.com or contact us at info@jouleassets.com
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en
[2] Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions “The European Green Deal” COM (2019) 640 final
[3] Communication “United in delivering the Energy Union and Climate Action – Setting the foundations for a successful clean energy transition” COM (2019) 285
[4] European Commission, “A clean planet for all”, November 2018
[5] European Commission, “Renewable energy progress report”, April 2019