Climate & Environment

Junior finance minister hits out at lack of investment in SMES to fund ‘ugly transition’ to net zero

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill says that it is important to entice investors to invest in ‘dirtier projects’

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, minister of state at Department of Finance: “There is a lot of investment available for new green projects…but what about the availability of capital for making the uglier transition, the retrofitting - how cheap and available is that?”. Picture: Ray Keogh

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, the junior finance minister, has called for a focus on funding the “ugly transition” required for small and medium businesses (SME) to meet net zero goals.

The minister, who was speaking at a Climate Finance Week event, said more needed to be done to understand the price and risk of investing in current businesses and buildings as they look to achieve net-zero goals.

“There is a lot of investment available for new ...