Investments in energy efficiency improvements are vital to ensure Europe’s future as a sustainable yet prosperous economy. The benefits are enormous – these investments contribute to abating greenhouse gas emissions, improving the competitiveness of European businesses, and enhancing Europe’s energy security. This is why European leaders are placing energy efficiency at the heart of their strategy to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Yet amid the COVID-19 crisis, we risk losing sight of the benefits of energy efficiency investments by European firms, just at a time when we really need to accelerate our efforts.
In this context, a new EIB report, Going Green – Who is investing in energy efficiency, and why it matters, will be published at 14:00 Brussels time on Thursday, 2 July 2020.
The report sheds light on firms’ investments in energy efficiency measures and the role of various factors in their decisions, based on the EIB Investment Survey (EIBIS). The insights are compared across countries (EU 27 and USA), sectors and firm size classes to identify areas for potential improvement and target setting. The EIBIS has been conducted annually since 2016 and includes interviews with some 12 000 firms from all EU countries, size classes and main sectors, providing qualitative and quantitative information about their investment activities, their financing needs and the difficulties they face.
The full report will be available on the EIB’s website
The Director of the EIB Economics Department Debora Revoltella and the lead author of the report Fotios Kalantzis will present it in a webinar on Thursday, 2 July at 13:30. You can register for the webinar by sending your name and the name of your organisation to the EIB press team: press@eib.org
The report, with results on EU level and for single EU countries, will be available under embargo on Tuesday, 30 June. Requests should be sent by email to press@eib.org. In asking to receive the report under embargo, journalists undertake to respect the publication time of 14:00 Brussels time on Thursday, 2 July 2020.
For further information and interview requests, journalists are invited to contact EIB communications officer Jan Gerrit Wnendt (+352 691 284 340), j.wnendt@eib.org.
About the EIB Economics Department
The EIB Economics Department provides economic research and studies, as well as unique analysis of investment activities in the EU and beyond, and supports the Bank in its operations and in defining its positioning, strategy and policy. Chief Economist Debora Revoltella heads the Department and its team of 40 economists.
About the EIB Investment Survey (EIBIS)
The EIB Group Survey on Investment and Investment Finance is a unique annual survey of some 13 500 firms. It comprises firms in all EU Member States, as well as a sample of US firms that serves as a benchmark. It collects data on firm characteristics and performance, past investment activities and future plans, sources of finance, financing issues and other challenges that businesses face. Using a stratified sampling methodology, the EIBIS is representative across all EU Member States and the US, as well as across firm size classes (micro to large) and four main sectors. It is designed to build a panel of observations to support time series analysis – observations that can also be linked to firm balance sheet and profit and loss data. The EIBIS was developed and is managed by the Economics Department of the EIB, with Ipsos MORI providing development and implementation support.