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Assessing the Opportunities and Challenges of Green Finance in Italy: An Analysis of the Biomass Production Sector

Pasquale Marcello Falcone () and Edgardo Sica

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: The present paper provides empirical evidence of the opportunities and challenges surrounding green finance (GF), looking at the financial issues that might prevent the investment decisions of green companies. To this end, we explore the case of Italian biomass producers by means of a discourse analysis supported by a survey administered to a pool of experts. Although our findings suggest that GF provides an opportunity for achieving environmentally sustainable innovation pathways, experts recognize that it does not actually prevent biomass producers from facing institutional and financial criticalities in funding their investment projects. Such criticalities include: uncertainty about government policies, the minimal involvement of financial suppliers in the biomass sector, the short-term orientation of financial instruments and the limited knowledge of financing options and technical expertise within companies. The results indicate that effective policy interventions should ensure that objectives are orientated towards the long term with the aim of reducing the risks perceived by financial institutions in funding biomass producers.

Keywords: green finance; discourse analysis; biomass production; subsides; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

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