How does the new “climate future” savings plan work, available from July 1?

This new financial product aims to direct private savings towards ecological transition investments and has the particularity of having to be opened before the age of 21.

A little green in the bank. From July 1, 2024, banks and other financial players will be able to offer a new financial product: the “future climate” savings plan. Created in October 2023, within the framework of the “Green Industry” law, this savings plan open to those under 21, like a PEA, allows individuals to invest their money in different supports, shares or obligations.

Except that here, there is the need to choose labeled investments, in order to finance low carbon projects. “There are a number of criteria that have been set out in the law and have been clarified subsequently, which aim to ensure that we do not invest in a certain type of company, including companies that develop fossil fuels or those that are particularly polluting.“, details Paul Schreiber, analyst at Reclaim Finance.

The objective of the green industry law, adopted in October 2023, is to reindustrialize France while promoting decarbonization. For example, the government wants to halve the time it takes to set up factories and encourage the deployment of major decarbonization technologies, such as “big five” – wind, photovoltaic, heat pumps, batteries, decarbonized hydrogen. To finance this objective, the executive is counting on private savings (retirement savings, life insurance).

The money thus invested is blocked for five years, unavailable in all cases before the holder reaches the age of majority and liquidated, at the latest, when the latter reaches the age of 30. The savings set aside by parents for their children will be blocked until they reach the age of majority, an essential mechanism for “finance much longer-term projects needed for the ecological transition“, Bercy indicated at the time.

But, not enough to change the situation massively, according to Paul Schreiber.

“We really have a question about savings in general in France: how to redirect savings towards the ecological transition? And it is not by only creating a new product that we will succeed in making this transition.”

Paul Schreiber

at franceinfo

The specialist continues: “I will take an example: the first investment of the French today is life insurance and which is an investment for which we look very little at the environmental consequences at this stage, and on which the savers themselves have very little information.”

This new savings plan can be issued by a bank, an insurance company or a mutual insurance company. Capped at 22,950 euros, its return will depend on their investment strategies. The government says it expects a billion euros of annual collection “to its full potential” for the green industry.