CITYnvest organised a national French workshop [3] in order to bring stakeholders together to discuss how to trigger the market uptake for energy efficiency in buildings. In each focus country, CITYnvest first investigates the characteristics of the energy efficiency market and which support local and regional governments need to deploy their own long-term financing models. In this section, you can read a summary of the findings, which were developed in cooperation with the French Association of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions [4]. It will be continuously updated, based on the feedback of municipalities that participated in the workshop and national experts.
Housing sector in France:
Since 13% of households are in energy poverty, the main objective of the French Housing Policy Framework is to ensure decent housing for all citizens.
Energy transition:
Objectives at national level by 2030 (in comparison with levels from 1990)
If it comes to the private housing stock, the objective is to renovate 380 000 buildings per year.
Existing instruments and incentives supporting building renovations:
Financial support to renovate social housing
For more information about National Urban Renewal Programme, consult the ANRU website [12], the one-stop-shop created to simplify the measures taken by local governments and social landlords interested in promoting complete renovation projects within their neighbourhoods.
Third Party Financing:
Third Party Financing refers to debt financing. The project financing comes from a third party, usually a financial institution or another investor, or the ESCO (Energy Service Company), and not from the user/owner of the building. In this model, the total or the good share of the cost of renovations is covered from the future energy savings, thus the buildings’ owners do not need to make big investments. This approach may include both technical and financial support or only technical support.
More information about French context can be found in the Preparatory Report [17].
Bundling renovation projects can significantly reduce transaction costs and make projects bankable.
- See the section “How to efficiently bundle buildings?” in the CITYnvest FAQ. [18]
- Consult a toolkit on how to set up a one-stop-shop [19] to bundle different buildings across municipalities following the Renowatt model.
In order to learn more about the possible complimentary funding, see FAQ section [18] on European Support at the CITYnvest website. You can also look at examples of projects using grants as financial instruments in the CITYnvest barrier guidance tool. [20]
In France, several private-public or public models have already been developed, which allowed longer pay-back for the building owners. Consult the examples of SPEE [14] and ARTEE [16] for more information.
If the beneficiaries are not able to ensure financing for renovation projects due to low income or no capacity to take loans on the commercial market, you can look into models that include financing services in the framework of the Programme Delivery Unit. Find examples in the CITYnvest barrier guidance tool [20].
Cooperative and citizen-based models can be an alternative to purely market-based mechanisms or public subventions to finance energy efficiency. See examples of Énergies renouvelables communautaires - Communauté climatologique de Saerbeck [21], Ecopower [22] and Pajopower [23].
Follow the different steps to build your local financing models for energy efficiency! Overview on our website. [24]
In France, the experts expressed the need to put the renovations investment outside the scope of public debt, which could bring about a change of scale. They call on applying a specific treatment to certain energy transition investments, when calculating the public debt and deficit within the scope of EU rules.
Additionally, a need to develop a specific national climate contribution to local governments (financed by carbon price, ETS) which would support local governments in their investments in energy efficiency was identified.
Moreover, promoting and supporting users, clients and investors to better deal with contracting procedures, as well as enhancing cooperation between the public and private sectors was noted as factors which would help scale up energy efficiency investments.
Links
[1] http://citynvest.eu/content/france
[2] http://citynvest.eu/content/france-0
[3] http://citynvest.eu/content/france-workshop-france
[4] http://www.afccre.org/fr
[5] http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/-Application-de-la-loi-.html
[6] https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F19905
[7] http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/Le-credit-d-impot-transition.html
[8] https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F1224
[9] https://www.service-public.fr/professionnels-entreprises/vosdroits/F23568
[10] https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F1328
[11] http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/L-eco-pret-logement-social,28944.html
[12] http://www.anru.fr/
[13] http://citynvest.eu/content/op%C3%A9rateur-de-services-%C3%A9nerg%C3%A9tiques-r%C3%A9gional-oser
[14] http://citynvest.eu/content/spee-picardie-2
[15] http://citynvest.eu/content/%C3%A9nergies-posit%E2%80%99if-1
[16] http://citynvest.eu/sites/default/files/workshop-files/ARTEE_David%20Dieumegard.pdf
[17] http://citynvest.eu/content/preparatory-report-france
[18] http://citynvest.eu/faq?faq_category=3
[19] http://citynvest.eu/sites/default/files/library-documents/20160527%20RenoWatt%20toolkit%20def.pdf
[20] http://citynvest.eu/content/citynvest-barriers-tool-0
[21] http://citynvest.eu/content/%C3%A9nergies-renouvelables-communautaires-communaut%C3%A9-climatologique-de-saerbeck
[22] http://citynvest.eu/content/cooperative-case-study-ecopower
[23] http://citynvest.eu/content/cooperative-case-study-pajopower
[24] http://citynvest.eu/content/step-step-guidance