High-level impact lunch in Budapest

The Equilibrium Institute held its first high-level impact lunch in the framework of the project on 13 December. The discussion dedicated to decision-makers was focusing on the economic crisis, the energy crisis and the effects these have on decarbonisation opportunities and efforts of the industrial sector.

Equilibrium Institute’s Lead climate and environmental policy expert, Dóra Csernus, and its Chief economist, Zsolt Becsey gave presentations about the new report, Industry Decarbonization in Hungary and about some economic forecasts prepared by the Institute.

The meeting was an only-CEO meeting where the project team could get an insight into how some of the most relevant CEOs see the challenges linked to the energy crisis in Hungary.

When talking about alternative forms of financing, participants stressed how difficult it was to get a loan in the actual financial environment The high interest rates make borrowing and lending almost impossible, and the advantages a green loan can represent nowadays is very small compared to the whole cost of a loan. The financial sector would be keen on lending money for decarbonisation, but with the economic crisis, they cannot make offers at an interest rate low enough for companies in search of financing.