Green Finance Institute

All EU industrial, financial, climate and nature policies are being discussed, designed and adopted in Brussels.

The European Commission has indicated that an additional €477 billion of green investment will be needed each year. Yet, government balance sheets can only cover between 20% and 50% of the spending share. EU public funds should therefore be used as a catalysts to mobilise private capital to fill the financing gap.

GFI’s role

The Green Finance Institute’s objective in Brussels is to connect EU institutions with action‑ready public/private green finance solutions, partnering with EU authorities, financial institutions, industry stakeholders, academics and civil society.

In the context of the Clean Industrial Deal and the renewed Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the GFI aims to support the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and other stakeholders to optimise the allocation of public finance and amplify its catalytic role, sector by sector.

The GFI Brussels maintains close collaboration with GFI Spain and GFI Denmark, which are leading efforts to advance national climate finance solutions, while Brussels engages with EU-level authorities, financial institutions, and key stakeholders to drive broader initiatives.

Ongoing initiatives

Financing Europe’s industrial decarbonisation: The GFI and the Energy Resilience Leadership Group (ERLG) co-hosted a roundtable on mobilising capital towards industrial decarbonisation investments in Europe, in the run-up to the release of the European Commission’s Clean Industrial Deal. The workshop was designed to facilitate dialogue between public and private sectors on the best options to unlock capital at scale with attendees including policymakers, public sector banks, private investors and industrials.

Financing innovation in European Grids: Making grid infrastructure fit for the energy transition is at the core of both the European Commission’s Clean Industrial Deal (CID) and Affordable Energy Action Plan (AEAP), both in the form of (cross-border) grid expansion and using our grids in a smarter way. The GFI and Breakthrough Energy held a roundtable, hosted by the European Investment Bank, discussing the barriers and solutions to mobilise capital towards the deployment and scaling of innovative grid technologies (IGTs) in the context of the CID and AEAP.

Skypower coalition: EU member states have set net zero aviation targets for 2050. To support the scale-up of e-SAF production capacity, the GFI works closely with Systemiq, and Mission Possible Partnership through Project .

Team

James Hooton is Managing Director of Missions, managing the Programme Directors across all GFI’s sectors. James previously spent 16 years at Goldman Sachs in London and Asia as a Vice President managing teams across geographies and a range of financial products from commodities, equity derivatives to vanilla cash equity. James is a founding and board member of the Sustainable Energy Finance Association, based in Brussels where he advises on financing real estate decarbonisation.

James Hooton

Managing Director, Missions

Marie-Adélaïde leads GFI work in Brussels where she focuses on EU public/private finance solutions to unlock private capital and accelerate green investments. Prior to joining the GFI, she worked at LSEG, the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) and Paris Europlace, where she focused on financial regulation, sustainable finance and broader EU policy matters. She holds a Master Degree from Sciences Po Paris and has worked and lived in Italy, Brasil, Russia and the UK before settling in Belgium.

Marie-Adélaïde de Nicolay

Consultant, Brussels

Andrew Eckhardt

Senior Strategic Advisor, Brussels

Constance Berthier

Senior Strategic Advisor

GFI EU

GFI’s role

Ongoing initiatives

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Team

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