Environmental Guarantee

Environmental Guarantees can be granted as security for credits that are used for environmental protection investments, renewable energy projects or projects improving energy efficiency.

Environmental Guarantee is mainly targeted for large companies throughout Finland.

Suitable uses for the guarantee are, for instance, investments improving water or air protection or the recycling of wastes, as well as renewable energy projects undertaken by companies that need financing for investments in wind power parks, biofuel facilities, thermal power plants utilising forest energy, or other similar applications. The Guarantee can however not be granted for financing that is used to manufacture the devices in aforementioned projects. For these purposes Finnvera can offer other financing products.

The guarantee can also be used for projects intended to improve energy efficiency and for the modifications, repairs or improvements required by the above-mentioned projects.

The guarantee may also be granted for an investment that is carried out abroad but involves substantial improvements to the state of the Finnish environment.

When deciding on the guarantee, Finnvera assesses whether the measures resulting from the environmental protection investments and energy investments are efficient and feasible.

The Environmental Guarantee is mainly targeted for large enterprises engaged in industry or in similar production.

In general, the guaranteed credit has a maturity not exceeding ten years.

The guarantee can be granted for some of the credit by sharing the risk with the financier. Finnvera’s coverage of the guaranteed credit is at most 80%.

For processing the guarantee application, the applicant must give Finnvera an account of the feasibility and efficiency of the environmental protection investment or waste recycling investment. In the case of an energy investment, the applicant must give an account of the increase in renewable energy, the environmental impacts of the project, or the improvement of energy efficiency. The account must be prepared by a consulting firm or some other actor having sufficient expertise of the sector.

In addition, for environmental protection investments carried out abroad, Finnvera obtains an opinion from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs concerning the feasibility of the investment.

Counter-security to be negotiated separately in each case.

The guarantee holder is required to pay an annual guarantee commission, the size of which depends on the enterprise’s financial standing, the maturity of the guaranteed credit, and any counter-security provided. A handling fee is also charged.