In the context of the new European regulations on environmental protection, banks have become a public policy tool and in the future could be penalised if they continue to finance polluting projects, said Daniel Sava, Financing & Advisory Director, UniCredit Bank, at the conference “Digitalization and energy efficiency – Brașov 2024” organised by Energynomics and the Italian Chamber of Commerce for Romania.
“Banks have become an instrument of public policy as a result of European environmental legislation. This means that between a project that produces smoke and one that is less polluting, banks will prefer to go green. If there will be an incentive to go in that direction at the beginning, there will probably be a penalty later on for banks or other actors in the financing stream that support projects that are not green. In principle, this is the role of banks: to finance the transition to a sustainable economy and to create sources of capital to develop this alternative,” said Daniel Sava.
So banks need to identify new instruments to finance green projects and move towards supporting the transition to a sustainable economy.
UniCredit Bank focuses on financing energy efficiency projects in large enterprises, i.e. the construction of new energy-efficient buildings. The bank also supports businesses offering services that contribute to carbon reduction and climate resilience, including awareness-raising measures, promotion of renewable energy, development of smart energy systems (including smart grids and ICT systems) and related storage.
The bank also supports projects in high-efficiency cogeneration, district heating and cooling, climate change adaptation measures, climate risk prevention and management, as well as the development of alternative fuel infrastructure and the digitisation of large enterprises.
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“We are in a new context. For a long time, global economic development has been based on burning fossil fuels. While living standards around the world have far exceeded expectations, we have ignored the impact on the environment. We need to take into account the costs we cause to the environment and their effects on our companies’ activities and our health. That is why we need to find new instruments to finance green projects. Banks have been invited to think about these issues,” added Daniel Sava.
The conference “Digitalization and energy efficiency – Brașov 2024” was organised by Energynomics and the Italian Chamber of Commerce for Romania, with the support of our partners: Bepco, Exim Banca Românească, ICAP CRIF, Intesa Sanpaolo Bank, Polytrade Global, SolarX Power, Unicredit Bank, WALDEVAR Energy, WEBUS 4 ENERGY.