Study on French public finance for energy projects and its job impacts - Final Report

The study uses publicly available data from the OCI Public Finance for Energy database to provide a profile of public financing support for energy projects between 2016 and 2020. This shows that French public finance institutions provided financial support for energy-related projects with private-sector companies as beneficiaries at a total value of 7.5 billion EUR (on average 1.49 billion EUR worth of support annually), for 112 project-type of activities in total: 10 projects were financed in relation to Fossil Fuels (i.e., projects related to coal, oil and gas), representing 26% of the total financing value. 84 projects financed related to Clean energy forms (i.e., projects related to solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, small-scale hydropower and energy efficiency), representing 40% of total financing. 18 projects financed related to Other energy forms (biomass, hydro and other renewables, such as marine energy), representing 26% of total financing. Fossil Fuel-related projects, on average, received higher amounts of financial support per project than other type of projects, i.e., on average three times the value of the financial support offered to Clean projects. However, in the last two years of available data (2019 and 2020), Clean projects received the greatest share of the annual financial support provided. It is calculated that between 2016 and 2020, French public finance institutions supported approximately up to 62.000 jobs by providing financial support to energy-related projects located inside and outside France. While Clean energy projects account for 52% of jobs and 40% of the total financing issued, Fossil Fuel projects account for 18% of jobs and 26% of the financial support. For the assessment of job impacts, employment multipliers are used together with the amount of financial support provided to estimate an approximate number of jobs supported through the activities of French public finance institutions. The difference in the number of jobs is thus explained by a combination of higher levels of financial support as well as a higher employment intensity of clean energy types (on average). The future employment impact potential of French public finance for energy-related projects was assessed for three scenarios: 'Baseline/business-as-usual': French public financing and its allocation profile across Fossil Fuel, Clean and Other projects is held constant over the forward-looking period. '100% Clean scenario with constant shares': French public financing shifts entirely to Clean projects, and the allocation of financing across various Clean types is in line with the historical distribution (2016-2020). '100% Clean scenario with shifting shares': French public financing shifts entirely to Clean projects, and the distribution of support across various Clean types changes gradually over time in line with global energy supply growth projections from the IEA. In the '100% Clean' scenarios, more jobs are supported overall than in the Baseline. It is estimated that - with 1.5 billion EUR - from 2023 up to 2027, up to ∼62,000 jobs can potentially be supported in the Baseline, ∼81,000 jobs in a '100% Clean - constant shares' scenario, and ∼82,000 jobs in a '100% Clean - shifting shares' scenario. Most energy sector jobs are thus provided in the latter scenario, in which the shift to financing for Solar energy projects is most marked