„Green” and renewable energy represent the answer to cybersecurity, stated Cristian Nacu, Senior Country Officer for Romania at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), on Thursday, at a specialized conference.
„The European Union has legislation and agreements that we have signed and which are still in force, and it is very difficult to change them as long as the European Union itself does not change. I think it would also be crazy on our part to ignore the fact that there are many funds allocated for such financing, if only to mention the Modernization Fund. From an energy perspective, especially in Europe, green and renewable energy is actually the answer to energy security. So, things for our region are quite clear from this point of view.”, said Nacu, according to Agerpres.
However, he stressed that certain past policies seem to have ignored science. He believes that, most likely, engineers were not consulted when it was stated that no more investments in gas or nuclear were desired, because if they had been consulted, everyone would have known that you cannot rely solely on renewables without also including flexible gas, flexible gas investments, nuclear, or hydro, which can compensate, as well as batteries, which can compensate for the cyclical nature of renewable energies.
„Now, certainly, in recent years, there has been a return to some degree of rationality, in the sense that certain policies in the past seemed to disregard science. Engineers were probably not consulted when it was stated that we no longer wanted investments in gas or nuclear, because if they had been consulted, everyone would probably have known that you cannot rely solely on renewables without also including flexible gas, flexible gas investments, or nuclear or hydro, which can compensate, as well as batteries, which can compensate for the cyclical nature of renewable energies. These matters will be revisited and are in the process of being revisited. There are indeed strategies that are being adjusted, in the sense that things will return to a rational path.”, the IFC representative stated.
On the other hand, Nacu mentioned that „green” funding is becoming increasingly attractive.
„From a funding perspective, I believe things are quite clear. „Green,” climate, and sustainable funding remain very attractive. Numerous studies show they are much more attractive than normal funding, in terms of investor appetite, particularly for tradable bond types with these themes: sustainability. These bonds are generally up to twice as attractive to investors as normal ones. Romania has done quite a bit in this area. I think, in the last few years, Romanian corporations, and I include banks here as they have a significant contribution, have likely issued over five billion in such tradable bonds, with the vast majority being green.” stated the IFC representative.
According to the cited source, out of the total bonds issued, IFC subscribed to almost 20%, which proved the institution's role as a catalyst for such financing and the confidence-boosting effect on such instruments.
„We remain interested and will continue to finance such investments. These solve several things at once. Firstly, the use of money for sustainable purposes. Being exchange-listed instruments, they will contribute to increasing stock exchange volumes and liquidity, if possible. Finally, these things will lead to access to financing, which, again, is a vital issue we want to solve and where Romania is still deficient, if we only consider the bank intermediation rate, which is below 25%, while in Central and Eastern Europe it is around 67-80%, the West is closer to 100%, and the United States is at 230-250%.”, explained Cristian Nacu.