Ariane de Dominicis – DG Environment Investments and resource efficiency in the EU Seminar "EU priorities and support for investments in the water sector" Brussels – 8 March 2013 Ariane de Dominicis – DG Environment

Ressource efficiency Resource efficiency: producing with less resource and preserving natural capital; key for growth and jobs Interlinkages between resources, for example water and energy A priority for the European Commission: Flagship under the 2020 strategy and Roadmap to a resource efficient Europe (COM(2011)571) res

The need for private investments in ressource efficiency A transition to a more resource efficient economy is needed… …and will require significant investments… … not only in the "sustainability" sector but also for mainstreaming sustainability into the economy Importance of private capital for that transition Specific context: economic crisis, less financing from banks available res

Barriers to investment in ressource efficiency (1/2) Barrier n°1: insufficient inclusion of external costs in resource price Environmentally Harmful Subsidies (Lack of) environmental taxation Prevents resource efficient activities to be economically viable Barrier n°2: risk Technology risk Policy risk Resource price risk res

Barriers to investment in ressource efficiency (2/2) Barrier n°3: complexity and lack of information Lack of capacity from economic and financial actors Complexity of projects Need for information for investors in stocks/bonds market Barrier n°4: short-termism Built-in incentives for short term performance in financial markets… … and need for long-term investments for resource efficiency res

How to address barriers to investments? (1/2) Dialogue with the financial sector: the Resource Efficiency Finance Roundtable Barrier n°1: insufficient inclusion of external costs in resource price European Semester: environmental taxation and addressing Environmentally Harmful Subsidies Barrier n°2: risk Development of financial instruments / risk sharing res

How to address barriers to investments? (2/2) Barrier n°3: complexity and lack of information Initiatives to increase availability of information: for retail investors (KID), for companies (non-financial reporting) Technical assistance to address complex projects / capacity building (for example, resource audits in several Member States) Disclosure of environmental information made mandatory by certain stock exchanges Barrier n°4: short-termism Green Paper on Long Term Financing of the European economy Other initiatives on eg corporate governance res

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