Today, the State Development Company Vake has changed into The Finnish Climate Fund with an amendment to the Articles of Association. The owner has also given the company operational guidelines and a new Board and Investment Council have been appointed for the Climate Fund. You can find news about the new Board of Directors and the Investment Council with its members here.
The Finnish Climate Fund is a state-owned special-assignment company. Its operations focus on combating climate change, boosting low-carbon industry and promoting digitalisation. The operational guidelines define the role, task and nature of financial activities of the Climate Fund.
The Climate Fund’s mission is to decrease the carbon footprint and strengthen the carbon handprint – in other words, to lower climate warming greenhouse emissions and add the emission reduction potential – by advancing new climate and digital solutions. In addition to decreasing greenhouse emissions, the fund aims to improve the use of natural resources and advance biodiversity. The Climate Fund can also fund digitalisation projects that bring societal benefits.
The Climate Fund invests in large-scale projects in which the fund’s investment is crucial to enable the project’s realisation in the first place, on a larger scale or earlier than it would with funding from elsewhere. If this kind of clear added value from the state’s participation cannot be identified from the investment, the Climate Fund will not take part in the project.
The Climate Fund’s primary investment targets are industrial scaling projects. However, the company can also be involved in various public platforms, joint ventures by private and public actors as well as launch new funds or invest in funds. The Fund can allocate debt and equity capital funding as well as mezzanine funding for private and/or public projects.
As a state-owned special-assignment company the Climate Fund aims at fulfilling its task as efficiently as possible and creating societal impact instead of maximising its own revenue. In the long term the Climate Fund’s investments and financing must, however, be self-sustainable when assessed as a whole. Within the framework of state aid rules and regulations, the Climate Fund may take higher risks in its investment activities or settle for a lower return than private investors. To the extent that this requires instruments to be considered as EU state aid, the company will prepare the necessary measures (including a possible state aid scheme) in co-operation with the Ministry. The company will not award direct grants or subsidies during its launching phase.
The role of the Climate Fund as part of the field of state-owned innovation financiers is to act in a particularly scaling role between Business Finland and Tesi. Business Finland is a public actor that offers funding for innovations and internationalisation and promotes travel and investments to Finland. Tesi is a state-owned investment company that invests in private equity funds and makes direct market-based investments in growth companies together with private investors. Finnvera funds the founding, growth and internationalisation of SMEs and exports of large companies with various loan and guarantee instruments.
More information
Saara Mattero, Public Affairs Director
0400 114 777
saara.mattero@ilmastorahasto.fi