The lack of attractive financing structures is still one of the biggest hurdles for upscaling energy efficiency projects and therefore to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. This project aims to address this challenge for the implementing country being Cyprus by developing tools which will create the necessary dynamics for building enterprise-level solutions to reduce GHG emissions.
In Cyprus, to date not all barriers to climate financing have been addressed. Banks are not encouraging energy efficiency and renewable energy measures, for instance, by offering low-cost, readily accessible loans. Governmental support schemes need to be reshaped in order to meet the current market needs, to be sector specific and address the problems. It is necessary to find alternative solutions to spread efficiency in energy-intensive sectors and to achieve national emission targets.
This project contributes to the climate action targets of Cyprus and supports the realisation of quantifiable greenhouse gas mitigation and the development of good climate policy conditions. The project was a complementary continuation of the Business4Climate program and aimed at the involvement of enterprises in Cyprus (non-ETS sectors) in climate action with a focus on financing of energy efficiency projects. More specifically, the project aimed to commit more than 250 (non-ETS) enterprises in all activity sectors in Cyprus to reduce their GHG emissions by more than 8% by 2030. It further made the developed online tool available for use by interested enterprises until 2030. These core impacts were supported by the development of a roadmap for financing models until 2030 with a focus on the Cypriot context.