They already had green fund of 2 billion euros, announced in August by the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne. They can now count on an additional DKK 1.2 billion. To transform a parking lot into a plant park, replace street lamp bulbs or even demineralize a school yard, from 2023 local elected officials will have the option of turning to the Caisse des dépôts. The public institution makes this new extension available to them for five years in the form of a loan.

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This Friday morning, in the office of the Minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, Christophe Béchu, the Director General of the Public Bank, Éric Lombard, details: 200 million euros, excluding loans, will be reserved for “engineering work“. Within this framework, 80 million will be earmarked.basic sobrietyto limit urban sprawl; and 100 million will be used for the benefit of “adaptation» society with the already present consequences of climate change.

A website called “La France des solutions”

An example put forward by Christophe Béchu: “If I am mayor and I want to plant trees, I need to know where to plant them, which species to choose… Not all cities have the means to answer these questions.“The money released by the Caisse des dépôts will finance this need for expertise in the municipalities, a request from local elected officials, according to the two men. “It’s a massive brake,we agree with the ministry for ecological transition.We need to ensure that all communities that have ideas and projects have the right people by their side to carry them out.»

“With the added option of borrowing at a lower cost, the upstream and downstream aspects of the green fund complement each other“, welcomes Christophe Béchu. As with the amounts from the green fund piloted locally by the prefects, this expansion corresponds to a desire to decentralize the allocation of funds, adds Éric Lombard: “The regional directors-general will be able to decide directly on the speedy arrival of the amounts.»

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A billion euros is not a ceiling. We will finance the projects

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The head of the bank also appeals to elected officials: “Don’t let them hesitate! If by any chance this loan, and I believe it is successful, the billion euros is not a ceiling. We will finance their projects.“While Securing”a tremendous message of confidence given by the government to elected officials“, in the words of Minister Christophe Béchus, the aim is therefore to encourage and help them speed up measures and projects in favor of ecological transition, because”the climate is a loan shark: the longer we wait, the more the climate interest rate rises, and the more we need even higher investments“.

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For more”make life easier for elected officials“, adds the former mayor of Angers, he will launch on Tuesday, on the occasion of the congress of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), a website called La France des solutions. The goal: that each mayor can detail a completed project or find a solution by writing a keyword. “We are thus adding another link to help elected officials know in which direction to go, or to understand what obstacles a colleague at the other end of France has encountered for such a project.», maintains Christophe Béchu. Which can’t help but give a political nod: “That was already what we did at the Mayor’s Republic, the association of elected representatives that I had set up.»