The deployment was planned over five years, it was finally carried out in four. Bpifrance, the public investment bank, whose mission is the financing and development of French companies, presented, Thursday March 28, the results of its “climate plan”. Launched in 2020, this system has allocated 20 billion euros for the ecological and energy transition of businesses.
Between 2020 and 2023, of these 20 billion euros deployed, the bank financed the ” transition “ of 6,600 companies for a total cost of 5 billion, largely in the form of green loans. This development must further intensify with the establishment since 2023 of a “mass door-to-door” carried out by Bpifrance teams with 20,000 companies across the country.
Some 8.5 billion euros were also mobilized to finance 2,750 “greentech”, SMEs or industrial start-ups with innovative solutions to fight climate change. And 6.5 billion euros were committed to 550 projects. “production of renewable and carbon-free energies”. “Minds have really evolved over the last four years, and large industrial groups like SMEs have become increasingly lucid about the need to decarbonize our economy”explains Nicolas Dufourcq, the general director of Bpifrance.
Decarbonization dynamics
This decarbonization dynamic must continue with an additional 35 billion euros that the investment bank plans to deploy by 2028. But many companies supported by Bpifrance face the high price of electricity which can weigh on their capacities. of investments. “To succeed in decarbonization, the electrification of industry is the top priority, explains Mr. Dufourcq. We must therefore convince entrepreneurs to switch from oil and gas to electricity, but it is not always easy when the price of gas remains cheaper than that of electricity.”
If the budgetary savings plan decided by the government to combat the level of public deficits should not concern the 54 billion euros of the France 2030 industrial investment program, it will not, however, spare Bpifrance’s climate plan . Part of the subsidies intended for small or intermediate-sized companies (VSEs, SMEs and ETIs) should be reduced. “Of the 45 million euros in so-called “France nation verte” subsidies paid in two installments by the State to Bpifrance, 20 million are currently awaiting arbitration”indicates the bank.