Publications

I4CE's Landscape of Climate Finance is an overview of climate investments made by households, companies and public authorities. Such investments include retrofitting buildings, purchasing electric vehicles, installing renewable energy, as well as paying for rail, cycling and urban public transport infrastructure.

Local authorities have a major role to play in achieving France’s 2050 carbon neutrality objectives, as set out in the National Low-Carbon Strategy (Stratégie Nationale Bas Carbone, SNBC). Due to their assets and areas of expertise, local authorities must make numerous climate investments, implement strategies and action plans, and take measures to encourage stakeholders within their territories. This study aims to estimate the cost of such climate action for local authorities. 

Industry: relocation and decarbonisation at the heart of the debate. The recent succession of crises (health, energy, geopolitical) and increased international competition have prompted France to look for ways to strengthen its industrial and energy sovereignty. It faces this challenge in addition to the challenge of decarbonising its industry. In this context, France and Europe are developing industrial policies with two objectives – relocation and decarbonisation – and with new tools such as the France 2030 plan and the Net Zero Industry Act at the European level. These policies target both ‘historical’ industries, such as steel and cement, and new clean technologies, from solar to batteries.

For years, the European Union assumed it would lead the cleantech race because it was the only one running in it. Mistakenly so. With the Inflation Reduction Act, the US quickly catches up. This brief argues that the best EU policy answer to the IRA is an EU long‑term climate investment plan. As the political appetite for such a plan is currently limited, the European Commission should use the political momentum to propose a targeted investment plan that focuses on the development, scale-up, manufacturing and deployment of clean technologies in the EU. It identifies three first bricks that can already be laid out to build this plan.

2022, France is paying dearly for a dependence on fossil fuels maintained by a chronic lack of investment in the decarbonisation of the economy. This edition of the Landscape of climate finance in France makes a detailed analysis of these critical expenditures by households, companies and public authorities, in the retrofitting of buildings, the purchase of electric vehicles, and renewable energies, as well as in rail, cycling and urban public transport infrastructures. Encouragingly, climate investments have increased significantly in the past year, driven, among other factors, by favourable regulations and by state support under the recovery plan. But this growth remains fragile, and analysis of several transition scenarios shows that climate investments need to increase further in order to stay on track to carbon neutrality and to ensure a lasting reduction in France’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Over 35°C in exam halls during the French baccalaureate, inhabitants affected by their residences overheated… Summer 2022 has once again shown that our buildings aren’t adapted for the new heat waves. And yet every year, tens of billions of euros are invested in construction and renovation projects that don’t always take climate change into account. In this study, I4CE proposes immediate actions on three levers to initiate the process of adapting our buildings, and three more structural changes, including changes to thermal regulations.  

L’adaptation de la forêt française aux changements climatique devient un enjeu politique important. D’une part parce que, de sécheresses en incendies, les conséquences de l’évolution du climat sur les peuplements sont de plus en plus visibles. D’autres part parce que son adaptation est une condition indispensable pour que la forêt joue le rôle central que l’on attend d’elle dans l’atténuation du changement climatique.

This I4CE report focuses on the role of countries’ Long-Term Strategies (LTSs) in the Paris alignment approaches of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). It explores the possible roles of both the LTS development process and the resulting LTS document in providing insights on the Paris alignment of investments within investment decision-making processes. The findings are relevant for a broader range of financial institutions.

A steep rise in investment in low-carbon vehicles and sustained climate investment in other sectors, a fall in the financing of fossil fuels, a climate funding deficit of over 13 billion that recovery measures are unlikely to offset...

The Landscape of Climate Finance is a comprehensive study of domestic investments which support climate mitigation in France. This study maps the financial flows supporting investments leading to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) across the French economy.

As part of the EUKI-supported project “Landscape of climate finance: Mainstreaming climate finance in the CEE region”, I4CE supported the Polish think-tank Wise Europa in the elaboration of a Landscape of climate finance in the sector of energy retrofitting of existing buildings in Poland.

Confronted with a health crisis that has caused a global social and economic shock, the European Union and countries around the world are adopting major economic support programs. Following the initial focus that must be on overcoming the health emergency itself, actions that contribute to climate goals can be an effective part of improving both the economy and the resilience of our society. I4CE’s proposal calls for a public finance package of 7 billion euros per year that is estimated to trigger 19 billion euros of additional public and private investment. Altogether, this package would contribute to the economic recovery post-crisis, while simultaneously reinforcing our society against future shocks without reducing France’s contribution to international climate goals.

Since 2012, I4CE has been tracking climate investment and finance in France and similar assessments have been conducted in Germany by IKEM. This study compares the methodologies and results of these two exercises – the most advanced in Europe. The paper allows an initial comparison of investments in the two countries, identifying similarities in priority […]

It is no easy task to take climate risks – transition risks and physical risks – into account in financial management practices. As this note shows from the example of banking activities, the intrinsic characteristics of these risks – which are long-term and cannot be assigned a probability and for which there are no historical […]

The 2019 Edition of I4CE’s Landscape of Climate Finance provides an overview of the investments made by governments, households and businesses in support of the French government’s climate-related objectives. The 2019 edition of the Landscape reveals that climate investments exceeded 45 billion euros in 2018 in France. These investments were made by households, public authorities […]

The transition to a low-carbon economy implies significant investments in buildings, transport systems, vehicles, power plants, industry, agriculture. However scaling-up those investments to meet climate and energy objectives requires an improved knowledge base in investments and financial flows in those sectors, as well as policy assessment tools.   This is why I4CE has developed since 2013 a “Landscape of domestic climate […]

To achieve the Paris Agreement’s objective of limiting the rise of global mean temperature to +2°C compared to the preindustrial period, a shift in the allocation of private finance flows from carbon-intensive activities to investments compatible with a 2°C pathway will be necessary. Given the often high expectations around bonds, it is thus important to understand […]

This report presents key findings of the second work package of I4CE’s work program on green bonds, exploring the challenges and opportunities to ensure the environmental integrity the green bond market. It explores the understanding of stakes and challenges related to the environmental integrity of green bonds and suggests potential next steps for both private […]

Adopted in 2015 at COP21, the Paris Agreement triggered new momentum in the fight against climate change and confirmed the global target of limiting the rise of global mean temperature to 1.5-2°C compared to the preindustrial period. Among the objectives, the central role finance has to play in order to achieve this transition has been […]

The Landscape of climate finance is a comprehensive study of domestic financial flows in favor of climate and the broader energy transition in France. The study maps the flows supporting investments leading to greenhouse gas mitigation across the French economy. The principal objective of the study is to support public debate on the role and relevancy of […]