100 million euros extra to help inter-municipal authorities adapt to climate change

The French government has doubled the amount allocated to inter-municipal authorities to finance their energy transition and climate change adaptation projects, increasing it to €200 million by 2025, the Ministry of Ecological Transition announced to AFP a few days ago.

Inter-municipal authorities with more than 20.000 inhabitants are required to develop "territorial climate-air-energy plans" (PCAET) in order to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality or prepare for droughts or floods aggravated by climate change.

A portion of the Green Fund, a financing tool for the ecological transition in communities, is dedicated to supporting the implementation of these plans. At the end of the budget review, this portion reached $100 million out of the $1,15 billion Green Fund.

It has now been increased to 200 million euros, Agnès Pannier-Runacher's office announced on Wednesday.

The total amount of the Green Fund is not increasing, but the fact that a larger portion is allocated to the PCAET "corresponds to a very strong demand from senators and local elected officials," the office justified.

For the Green Fund, "local authorities submit an application" to obtain funding for their project, "and it may or may not be accepted" by the prefectures, the firm explains. "Now, for these €200 million, we will delegate this envelope to all the inter-municipal authorities involved" in these climate plans.

"The money will be paid from the start, which will save time and provide flexibility," it added.

"This is very good news. Intercommunalities are spearheading the ecological transition, and this funding for their climate plans will help them implement concrete actions to adapt to climate change in their regions," said Sébastien Martin, president of Intercommunalités de France, contacted by AFP.

"These 200 million euros must nevertheless be considered in light of the considerable financial efforts required of local authorities, which will necessarily impact their ecological policies," he put into perspective, however.

The Green Fund, which had been increased to 2,5 billion euros in the initial 2024 budget, was very quickly reduced to 2 billion in the face of the public finance crisis, then reduced to 1,15 billion euros for 2025.

It can be used to finance protection against heat islands, the renaturation of schoolyards, the development of cycle paths, the recycling of brownfield sites or the energy renovation of buildings.