The Public Investment Bank has launched a climate plan with 20 billion euros to accelerate the ecological transition of companies. “Our role is to put them in transition now,” says Nicolas Dufourcq, the general director of Bpifrance, on franceinfo.
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It is one of the armed arms of the State in terms of business financing. The Public Investment Bank (Bpifrance) participates in the development of the economy by helping companies to grow through loans and financial participation in particular. And among the main axes of its strategy to help businesses, there is the acceleration of the energy and ecological transition, with a climate plan launched four years ago and 20 billion euros at stake.
Bpifrance works with “industrial SMEs and mid-sized companies everywhere” in France, explains Nicolas Dufourcq, the general director of Bpifrance, Thursday March 28 on franceinfo. “We offer them loans which are very long loans, where we take no guarantee on the assets of the entrepreneur or the company, with the addition of repayments and favorable rates”.
franceinfo: Were the 20 billion euros spent a year in advance?
Nicolas Dufourcq: The money is invested. It is allocated to companies in the form of loans which will be repaid, obviously. And then there are also subsidies which are innovation subsidies and sometimes very large subsidies to large battery factories in the north of France. That’s all that adds up to 20 billion euros.
Where exactly is the money going? You participate in financing the decarbonization of companies, particularly industrial ones.
Absolutely, we are decarbonizing the French productive fabric. And then we are also investing enormously to increase the production of renewable energies in France. We are even the number one bank, the leading French bank for financing wind power and photovoltaics, all categories combined, with approximately 2 billion euros in loans per year, which are significant volumes. So the wind farms that you see at sea, the photovoltaics, every time you pass by with your car, there is probably a loan or even sometimes a big loan, these are tens or hundreds of millions of euros of the BPI.
“The decarbonization of industry consists first of all in helping industrial companies to switch to electricity, because there are many that use gas or fuel oil.”
Nicolas Dufourcq, general director of Bpifrancefranceinfo
Companies wouldn’t decarbonize if you didn’t participate?
It’s expensive. You have to change processes and machines often and therefore invest. They wouldn’t do it now. Our role is to put them in transition now. So we are doing what we call a mass door-to-door campaign with our colleagues. Since the bank, we can consider that it is a huge bank which is in Paris, but in fact no, there are 55 small banks which are in the provinces, very close to entrepreneurs, one-stop shop. And our colleagues, in their cars, go door-to-door to see the bosses of SMEs, telling them, we’re getting started now.
What companies will you see? Those who pollute the most, those who need to decarbonize the most, those who need the money the most?
The ones that pollute the most are the very, very big ones. They are processed directly by our cousins at the Environment Agency, which is called ADEME. These are very large sums, these are a lot of state subsidies, the President of the Republic announced it, we are looking at tens of billions of euros in subsidies to help Arcelor decarbonize. That’s not us. We are industrial SMEs and mid-sized companies everywhere. Wednesday, I was in Châteauroux for example, next week I’m going to Nantes. And so, what do we offer them? We offer them loans which are very long loans where we take no guarantee on the assets of the entrepreneur or the company, with the addition of repayments and favorable rates.
You are also participating in the growth of what we call GreenTech. What exactly are we talking about?
So, GreenTech is very interesting. These are start-ups which are in most cases launched, built by researchers from French scientific universities who decide to become entrepreneurs.
“You should know that France is a country of plenty for researchers who wish to become entrepreneurs.”
Nicolas Dufourcq, general director of Bpifrancefranceinfo
Because the toolbox that will accompany them from the moment they make this choice, which is still an important choice in their life, is incredibly deep. You have a first grant, a second, a third. You take a small i-Lab competition, an i-Nov competition. And you arrive at this situation that I saw, for example one of the last ones, where I inaugurated the Umiami factory in Strasbourg, built by a 28-year-old entrepreneur whom we have supported since he was 25 years old. And in four years, therefore, he raised 100 million euros. This is France today.
Of the 100 million, we put 42 million, you see. And why ? Because he is very good. Its innovation is very good, it is GreenTech. And then quarter after quarter, its throughput times are good, so we continue to support it until setting up a new factory in Strasbourg, which I inaugurated last week.
And so 20 billion over the last four years and 35 billion to come, on what horizon?
Same, four years.
Will these 35 billion be enough? Jean Pisani-Ferry, the economist, puts the cost of the ecological transition at 66 billion per year, half of which is public money.
Yes, he is absolutely right. So we share the work a little. There are very large groups which do not need funding from the BPI. They have BPI as their capital, but they do not need additional capital injections or loans from us. Sometimes they need subsidies. And so, in the 35 billion in question, you will see subsidies from the France 2030 program on, for example, gigafactories of electrolysers for hydrogen. But you will mainly find financing for renewable energies, so wind power, photovoltaics, we continue and we accelerate. You will also find the decarbonization of French industrial SMEs and mid-sized companies. And then we will continue to develop the entire ecosystem of what we call DeepTech and GreenTech.
Does the money match the ambition?
In any case, it is already a great chance that we can deploy 35 billion in these conditions. Honestly, there are a lot of European countries that don’t do that today.