Delivering on the European Green Deal A Private Sector Perspective 2025

Sustainability of business translating to lower cost of borrowing139BOX 3 Studies of the European Central Bank140 and De Nederlandesche Bank141 suggest that greener companies pay lower interest rates than more carbon intensive ones. Our analysis of cost of borrowing of more than 1,200 European companies indicates that sustainability has measurable impact. For example, European companies from Time’s World’s Most Sustainable Companies of 2024142 list have lower cost of borrowing than those who fall outside of the list. The gap between companies from the list and outside of it has been growing between 2019 and 2023, in favour of the listed companies. Cost of borrowing of European companies Complexity The European public funding landscape is characterized by a lack of sufficient transparency and coordination between different levels of management – both regional and central. Currently, there is no single source of information that provides a comprehensive overview of all the available funding programmes, eligibility criteria and application processes for green initiatives. This fragmented information landscape makes it difficult for businesses, particularly small- and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs), to identify and access appropriate funding opportunities. Listed as time 500 most sustainable company 2024 Not listed as time most sustainable company 20240%1%2%3%4%5%6%Cost of borrowing 2019 2020 2021 2022 20233.71%4.00% 2.97%3.35% 2.73%3.17%3.08%3.61%4.35%5.15% Note: Sample size: total N = 1225, companies listed on Time 500 Most Sustainable Companies 2024 N = 178, companies not listed on Time 500 Most Sustainable Companies 2024 N = 1,047; Data courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Source: Accenture analysis, S&P Global Market Intelligence, Time. Delivering on the European Green Deal: A Private Sector Perspective 23