EU Financial Instruments in Practice: SMEs investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy in Croatia

Florijan Celic and Nela Vlahinic Lenz
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Florijan Celic: Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Rijeka, Ivana Filipovica 4, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
Nela Vlahinic Lenz: Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Rijeka, Ivana Filipovica 4, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia

International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, 2022, vol. 12, issue 4, 173-185

Abstract: In the context of the EU development strategy based on a climate neutral economy by 2050, an important dilemma for policy makers is how to provide an incentive for companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to make energy efficiency and renewable energy projects their high priority. The aim of this paper is to provide an independent empirical assessment of EU financial instruments and its barriers, used by SMEs targeting energy efficiency and renewable energy. Ex-Ante evaluation was carried out on a sample of 320 SMEs in Istria County, Croatia. The results of the empirical research suggest that despite of a low interest of investors in green projects, the use of the innovative financial instrument would significantly contribute to an increase in the number and value of investments in energy efficiency and renewables. Similar to most of other studies, our results also confirmed that administrative and bureaucratic barriers are perceived as the biggest obstacle for SMEs. It is therefore necessary to reduce the number of bodies involved, improve the quality of information dissemination and simplify procedures.

Keywords: SMEs; energy efficiency; renewable energy; EU financial instruments; Croatia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 D04 D22 D25 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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