Climate and Environmental Loan

The loan is intended for Finnish companies. Both your business and its investment must meet Finnvera's and the EIF's environmental, social and governance requirements. The product can also suit companies already demonstrating sustainable operations, for example through environmental certification, relevant EU sustainability support or clean-energy and climate-related intellectual property. That does not replace the assessment of your application.

Finnvera's own exclusions include financial, investment and insurance businesses, cryptocurrency-based business, developer-contracting and real-estate investment, and unethical business such as gambling. Developer-contracting (perustajaurakointi) is the arrangement in which a construction business establishes a housing or property company, builds homes or commercial premises for it, and sells shares that give buyers the right to occupy those premises. Building, renovating or renting premises for the customer's actual business can qualify. Farming and forestry are restricted, but companies in special sectors such as greenhouse cultivation, fur farming, seedling growing, forestry services and timber harvesting may receive financing. Significant negative environmental or social impacts are grounds for refusal.

The InvestEU contract has separate tests for the company and for the loan's use:

• Your company must not be active in the EIF's excluded activities, which include severe habitat destruction, conversion of natural forests to plantations, deep-sea mineral extraction, weapons and ammunition, tobacco, gambling and the sex trade. The full excluded list is in section 10 of the contract appendix.
• At signing, your company's main activity must not fall within the EIF restricted list in section 11. That list includes coal, oil and gas activities, mining, nuclear activities, hydropower, waste incineration and hazardous-waste treatment, conventional aviation and specified emissions-intensive manufacturing, including cement, steel and aluminium. It also restricts fossil-fuel power generation above 250 g CO₂e/kWh and geothermal generation above 100 g CO₂e/kWh over its life cycle.
• A loan for a specified purpose must not finance those restricted activities. The contract's exception for financing without a specified use does not remove the company-level restriction. The separate InvestEU prohibited-activity list in section 12 also applies; its narrowly defined exceptions do not remove the other eligibility tests.

Activity-specific conditions apply too. Biowaste digestion and landfill-gas use require a methane-leakage monitoring plan. CO₂ transport and permanent geological storage require monitoring under the applicable EU rules. Projects requiring an environmental-impact assessment must have the required assessments, permits and authorisations. Building heating and cooling projects face the fuel and efficiency conditions in section 6.1(8).

For biomass power or heat, feedstock must be uncontaminated biomass or biogenic waste from within the EU, or certified sustainable if sourced outside it. It must not be suitable as food or compromise food security. Forest feedstock must meet forest-certification principles and standards, through certification or a route to certification; uncertified sourcing areas must meet the same standards. Palm-oil products and material from tropical forests or protected sites are excluded.

You cannot use the loan to pre-finance an EU grant or use an EU grant to repay it. Combined InvestEU and other EU programme support must not exceed the financed project's total cost. Keep loan funds in an account at a credit institution in an EU member state, and use them only for the agreed purpose.

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Candidatures au fil de l’eau

Discuss the financing with your bank first, then apply through Finnvera's online service using the product page. If you are applying without another commercial debt financier, the own-bank-refusal condition still applies. Read and sign the InvestEU special conditions as part of the loan agreement.

Report other public aid granted at the same time and be ready to disclose other InvestEU financing. This loan normally contains de minimis aid, a form of limited State aid. If you do not disclose other public support, that other aid or grant may be refused when it is due to be paid.

During the loan, notify Finnvera promptly about breaches of the conditions and the specified ownership or InvestEU-financing changes. Keep the required loan and application records for five years after maturity, and longer while any relevant proceedings or investigations you know about continue. Provide requested information within 30 days.