Financing resilience, driving growth

Where are you seeing climate ambitions turn into real investable opportunities?

What we typically see in terms of scalable opportunities, and opportunities that attract interest, are opportunities that sit really at the intersect of industrial relevance, strong business model, and solid underlying growth. Typically, if we take the example of the clean energy value chain, be it renewable projects, demand for or need for storage, but also critical minerals, grids… all this part of the value chain are attracting a lot of interest. So, these projects address not only climate, but also sovereignty, supply chain, security…

How are you seeing finance and funding crowd into opportunities?

I think we can say there’s no shortage of capital, actually. There’s a lot of capital available for climate, for sustainable finance. But obviously, we need to ensure that the capital is directed towards real projects, real assets. Projects that make sense and projects that are bankable. We're coming back to the bankability. And I see three key elements. One is structuring. Typically, those projects usually bear or are perceived with higher risk. Maybe new technology, new markets, that require some specific structuring around them to make sure that financiers are comfortable with the control they have, the risk they take. Risk sharing mechanism as well, that can be achieved through solid contractual structure. And then, of course, you said it, the public-private partnerships are typically very efficient in order to mitigate the risk for the private sector and also demonstrate how strategic these projects are from a public standpoint. We recently announced a partnership with Ardian, a French private equity fund. We have a common strategy in the nature-based solutions space. And I think with our two groups together combined, will be able to do great things.

Are you seeing continued demand for blended finance solutions?

Yes, absolutely. And I think there's also more players, and a lot of public players are trying to also adapt their offer to this increased demand. And a lot of significant projects that we have financed would not have been possible without those types of partnerships.