Financing the EU Green Deal – Policy Breakfast Series

A vast amount of money will be needed to finance the transition to a climate-neutral and circular economy whilst investment in polluting infrastructure will have to cease.

What ‘rules of the game’ need to change in order to redirect private capital flows in support of our long-term societal objectives? What is the role of central banks and other supervisory authorities in managing the transition? How should public revenues and expenditures be revisited to achieve a real fair society?

These are in essence the questions that FEPS would like to address in this Policy Breakfast series on Financing the EU Green Deal. Each meeting will consist of a policy presentation, followed by a discussion with experts and policymakers; to which you are invited to contribute.

Discover more about FEPS work on climate investment

#1 European and National Development Banks for the Green Transition

Professor Stephany Griffith-Jones, Financial Markets Director, Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University presented FEPS Policy Study "The Role of the EIB in the Green Transformation". She explored the European Investment Bank (EIB)'s double mandate to maximize sustainable and inclusive development impacts while maintaining some financial profits or avoiding financial losses in the context of the major green transformation.

A discussion with the director of the KfW Liaison Office to the EU David Denzer-Speck and the director of the Economics Department of the European Investment Bank Debora Revoltella, as well as a Q&A, followed.

#2 New Resources for the EU Green Deal

Rafael Wildauer and Stuart Leitch, University of Greenwich, presented FEPS Policy Study "A European wealth tax for a fair and green recovery"  in partnership with the Renner Institut, where they investigated the potential of a European net wealth tax to raise substantial revenues while supporting the economy and the consensus on climate action

Jos Delbeke, Professor at KU Leuven and at the EUI School of Transnational Governance and former Director-General of the European Commission's DG Climate Action, gave a presentation on the carbon border adjustment mechanism and the ETS reform. A discussion with MEP Aurore Lalucq and a Q&A followed.

#3 The role of central banks in the climate transition

What role can central banks play in the transition towards a climate-neutral economy? Several discussions are ongoing, and FEPS debated this crucial issue with Irene Heemskerk, Head of the European Central Bank's new Climate Change Centre.

The presentation was followed by two short interventions from Jens van’t Klooster, postdoctoral fellow at the KU Leuven and Julia Symon, Senior Research and Advocacy Officer, from Finance Watch, who acted as discussants.

Saïd El Khadraoui, FEPS Special Adviser on the Green Deal, moderated the session.

#4 Sustainable Finance and the Issue of Greenwashing

Martin Spolc, Head of the Sustainable Finance Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, discussed with us how the EU’s sustainable finance framework can address greenwashing.

Aleksandra Palinska, senior research and advocacy officer at Finance Watch and Dr Ben Allen, research director at Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) and co-rapporteur of the Technical Working Group of Platform on Sustainable Finance, acted as discussants.

Andreas Dimmelmeier, FEPS policy analyst on climate and environment, moderated the session.

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