Financing the energy transition of SMEs in the NPDC coalfield

This research project, articulating a critical conceptual analysis of existing financial systems and a practical examination of the mechanisms likely to promote the energy transition in the Nord-Pas de Calais coalfield, explores locally the modalities of a transformation of the institutional arrangements essential to the refoundation of financing at the service of environmental and social imperatives. It is based on the idea that companies' commitment to an energy transition logic requires the mobilization of specific players and financing instruments that are socially just and rooted in the territory.

How, in the context of the transformation of the economic fabric of the NPDC coalfield, can current financing arrangements be articulated and decarbonation players coordinated? The project will analyze how SMEs in the NPDC coalfield, from Béthune to Valenciennes, could concretely commit to and/or accelerate their decarbonization process, over what timeframe, with which players and through which public funding.

The members of the project team and the Hauts de France Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Direction Rev3) have decided́ to join forces to bring this research project to fruition. The partnership between the LUMEN laboratory- ARTE research axis: "Allocation des Ressources et Trajectoires d'Entreprises", of which the project leader and part of the team are members, and La Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie Hauts de France will enable the complementaritý of knowledge and skills required to conduct the project. For several years the Hauts-de-France Region and the regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry, have been engaged in a dynamic entitled "rev3".
Rev3 is a collective approach - bringing together political, economic and academic circles in particular - with the aim of achieving a triple environmental, technological and territorial revolution to respond to major economic, ecological and social mutations.