Financing Resource Efficient and Cleaner Products by SMEs in the EU Eastern Partnership Countries: A Stakeholders’ Guidebook
An increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries consider resource efficient and cleaner production (RECP) to be an important business issue. They are interested in better understanding how they use input materials, what their environmental impact is and what opportunities there are to improve material efficiency of production and reduce pollution. Meanwhile, many SMEs are not fully conversant with the potential of resource efficiency and how to calculate the possible economic benefits of RECP measures. A survey conducted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in the EaP countries showed that SMEs consider insufficient access to finance to be the greatest obstacle to implementing RECP in their operations, followed by insufficient human resources to ensure adequate compliance with environmental regulations. SMEs may be reluctant to take loans from banks, even when such loans are available from local financial institutions. Such factors as high interest rates, short repayment periods, high collateral requirements, currency risks and political and economic instability discourage SMEs in EaP countries from assuming loans to invest in RECP measures. Indeed, internal funding is by far the largest financial channel through which SMEs obtain financial resources.
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Reports, Books and Booklets biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2018
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| Subjects: | RESOURCES CONSERVATION, CLEANER PRODUCTION, SMALL ENTERPRISES, MEDIUM ENTERPRISES, EASTERN EUROPE, FINANCING, |
| Online Access: | https://wedocs.unep.org/20.500.11822/37495 |
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