5.5.4 Informational Initiatives in Private Finance
The public sector can aim to encourage private finance to be more active in
the development, dissemination and transfer of environmentally sound technology
through a variety of activities which aim to remove some of the obstacles identified
above, without spending large sums of public expenditure. A wide range of initiatives
is possible here such as:
- Providing particular support to environmental businesses on accessing finance
to help them in their dialogues with financiers. The US, UK and Canada have
all had initiatives in this area.
- Raising awareness within the financial sector on climate change, through
seminars and working groups. Some countries have actively tried to get the
financial sector involved in discussions on the appropriate response to climate
change.
- Supporting the activity of some of the industry organisation identified
above, and involving them in government consultations.
- Looking at industry training and regulation to ensure that there is a level
of environmental management. Most active in this area have been the multilateral
development banks such as the EBRD, who have required banks to develop environmental
procedures as part of their financial markets' development programmes. While
such activities will tend to emphasise avoiding the worse rather than actively
encouraging the use of the best technology. it can still encourage a change
in attitude among financial institutions.
- The lower risks are perceived to be, the cheaper finance will be. The public
sector can help reduce risk perceptions by supporting information dissemination,
e.g. of successful case studies.
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