Purpose of the Green Transition Fund

The purpose of the Green Transition Fund of the City of Porvoo is to ensure that the City of Porvoo has the capacity to launch and to participate in projects that develop lines of business and their potential to operate and that enable and accelerate the green transition of companies operating in the city and that create new business opportunities. The purpose of the Fund is also to finance measures and investments implemented by the city itself as defined in the city’s climate and environmental programme or similar documents.

By establishing the Green Transition Fund, the city has aspired to ensure its ability to support the sustainable development of the region’s business life on a long-term basis, regardless of the economic cycle, to secure the city’s own competitiveness objectives and to ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises in Porvoo are able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the green transition and to maintain their competitive advantage within the business sector. Precisely small and medium-sized enterprises with more limited resources to engage in different development projects have been defined as the target group among companies.

The aim of the Fund is to enable and attract the realisation of new investments in Porvoo, to maximise private financing and to act as self-financing in development projects, to participate in the capitalisation of potential joint ventures (as decided separately) and to attract skilled workforce to Porvoo through the projects funded. To maximise its effectiveness, the Fund’s assets should also be used in conjunction with other financial instruments. The aim is to create diverse and mutually supportive projects with the Fund’s assets over the next few years.

The Fund may also open specific calls for applications for specific purposes, for example to promote a specific topic within the green transition or projects of certain types. The Fund can also be used to finance the city’s own climate and environmental measures, when they meet the criteria for the call for applications.

The ultimate aim is to produce well-being for the people of Porvoo through the effects of the projects funded, for example, in the form of created workplaces, new business opportunities, increased skills, more sustainable choices – in the form of a sustainable future. Here, Porvoo wishes to be among the trailblazers.

It is worth noting that the Green Transition Fund falls within the scope of, for example, EU state aid regulation, as the Fund distributes financial support from public funds. Moreover, it is not possible to pay direct business or investment subsidies from the Fund or to finance solutions that are considered as existent or part of basic operations, even if they are new to the operator. The purpose of the Fund is to help create emerging players that give birth to something new and large relative to its size, both from the perspective of green transition and increasing competitiveness. More detailed instructions can be found on the Fund’s website, so please read them carefully.

According to its bylaws, the Green Transition Fund will be in operation until 2035, at most, which is also the national target year for carbon neutrality. An initial capital of EUR 10 million has been transferred to the Fund from the city’s profit for 2022.