The Green Finance Institute today announced the formation of the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings (CEEB), which aims to develop the market for financing net-zero carbon and climate-resilient buildings in the UK by accelerating the pace of financial innovation and scale-up.
Formed of global experts from financial services, local and national government, energy and construction industries, academia and civil society, the CEEB will collaborate under the chairmanship of Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE, chief executive, Green Finance Institute.
Speaking at the COP25 climate change conference in Madrid this week, Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE, chief executive Green Finance Institute, said: “Financial markets need to play a leading role to meet the needs of our society, and to mobilise capital to address the climate emergency. The Green Finance Institute’s role is to convene innovators, sector specialists and policymakers to harness their creativity to identify and overcome the barriers to the deployment of green funding.
“The Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings brings together a breadth of experience behind a clear goal: to accelerate capital flows towards retrofitting and developing UK homes to net-zero carbon, resilient standards through the development of real-world finance solutions that appeal to home-owners, landlords and investors.”
With the support of the independent climate change think tank E3G, as secretariat, this is the first Coalition bringing together dynamic private, public and third-sector organisations[1] to focus on launching a series of scalable demonstration projects of financial products and solutions. These will aim to deploy capital to address specific challenges that limit the uptake of energy-efficiency measures in the residential building market in the UK.
“The growing recognition that real estate asset values will become increasingly correlated with climate risk highlights both the urgent need to improve our building stock and future-proof balance sheets, and the opportunity for the financial services sector to work with homeowners, tenants and landlords on improving the climate impact of our housing stock. In addition to participating in the Climate Financial Risk Forum, co-chaired by the PRA and FCA, Legal & General is pleased to be part of the Green Finance Institute’s Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings and its ambitious goal to create the market for financing retrofits of homes in the UK,” says John Godfrey, corporate affairs director, Legal & General.
Over the next 12 months, the CEEB will design, develop and launch a portfolio of scalable demonstrators of new financial solutions that unlock investment into the low-carbon and resilient building sectors. To ensure the demonstrators appeal across all residential building tenures, the CEEB will conduct a comprehensive review of the UK residential retrofit market identifying the barriers to widescale upgrading of existing housing stock.
“Affecting all sectors of the economy, we face no greater issue than the global climate crisis. Big issues demand big solutions, which will be born from new thinking, new ways of working and unprecedented collaboration. Broad-based partnerships will be critical in retrofitting the UK building stock to meet energy efficiency levels by 2050. That’s why BNP Paribas is participating in the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings and continues to play a leading role in mobilising capital through the development of new financial products and solutions for its customers and clients,” says Anne Marie Verstraeten, UK Country Head, BNP Paribas Group
“There are 29 million homes in the UK which must be made low-carbon, low-energy and resilient to our changing climate. Decarbonising and adapting the UK’s housing stock is critical for meeting the net-zero emissions targets and tackling the impacts of climate change. We welcome the formation of the Green Finance Institute’s Coalition on the Energy Efficiency of Buildings. We look forward to working together to enable the property and finance sectors to jointly seek opportunities for innovation, new business and job creation from improving the efficiency of homes,” says Julie Hirigoyen, chief executive, UK Green Building Council (UKGBC).
The outcomes and recommendations of the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings’ market review will be published in Spring 2020, while the portfolio of pilot ‘demonstrator’ projects will be presented at the 2020 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP26) in Glasgow, in December. In recognition that efforts to decarbonise buildings are global, the Coalition will also work with international partners to adopt and share best practices.
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Media contact: comms@gfi.green
About the Green Finance Institute
The Green Finance Institute is an independent, commercially focused organisation, supported by HM Treasury, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the City of London Corporation. As the UK’s principal forum for public and private sector collaboration in green finance, it is uniquely placed to mobilise capital to accelerate the domestic and international transition to a sustainable, net-zero carbon economy that is also climate resilient. The Green Finance Institute convenes and leads mission-led coalitions to identify and unlock barriers to deploy capital at pace and scale towards impactful, real-economy outcomes. For more information visit greenfinanceinstitute.com and follow @gfi_green.
About the CEEB
The Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings (CEEB) aims to develop the market for financing net-zero carbon, resilient buildings in the UK by accelerating the pace of financial innovation and mobilising capital towards the retrofit and development of a climate-resilient housing stock. The Coalition will deliver multiple real-world outcomes, including a portfolio of financial demonstration projects and a report on the segmental market review.
The Green Finance Institute welcomes all expressions of interest to participate in the Coalition that are received before 29th February 2020.
[1] Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings Members
Abundance
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
BNP Paribas
Building Societies Association (BSA)
Carbon Trust
CMS Law
Coutts
E.On
E3G (Secretariat)
Ecology Building Society
Energiesprong UK
Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group (EEIG)
Energy Systems Catapult
Engie
Eversheds Sutherland
Green Deal Finance Company
Green Finance Institute (Chair)
Leeds City Council
Legal & General
Loan Markets Association (LMA)
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Governments (MHCLG)
Monmouthshire Building Society
Nottingham City Homes
Phoenix Group
Reading University
Residential Landlords Association
RICS
Sero Homes
Transport for London (TfL)
TrustMark
UK Finance
UK Green Building Council (UKGBC)
UK Regulated Covered Bond Council
Welsh Government
Additional Quotes:
“CMS is delighted to be a part of the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings. The Coalition aligns with our own commitment to the UN SDGs and our belief that the real estate sector has an important role to play in combatting climate change. The Green Finance Institute has provided a valuable platform for the industry to collaborate on practical and effective solutions.” Cheryl Gurnham, real estate partner, CMS.
“E3G is delighted to be providing the secretariat for the Green Finance Institute’s Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings. The Coalition’s members are focused on practical action: bringing to launch demonstrators of finance for energy efficient home renovations that are scalable and can start to lever in the capital flows necessary to decarbonise the UK’s ageing housing stock. We hope the Coalition’s leadership will inspire government to set the long-term market signals that ensure energy efficient housing retrofit – and the financial products and services it needs – can be deployed at a pace, scale and depth that matches the climate emergency.” Nick Mabey, chief executive, E3G.
“We’re pleased to see that the role of finance in enabling retrofit of our existing homes and buildings is being recognised, supporting the need to transition to a zero-carbon economy.
“Ecology has been providing green mortgages for nearly 40 years and we’ve proved that incentivising energy efficiency through our unique C-Change discounts works by basing our mortgage rates on a property’s climate impact. We look forward to sharing our experience and contributing to the work of the new Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings.
“The Coalition needs to bring together, at pace, lenders and investors with the wider retrofit supply chain to urgently deliver tangible and practical solutions at scale if we are to avoid the catastrophic human and ecological impacts of the climate crisis.” Paul Ellis, chief executive, Ecology Building Society.
“Eversheds Sutherland is delighted to be a member of the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings steering committee. We are wholly committed to its outcomes and look forward to contributing to these in a meaningful way.” Jonathan Malim, head of debt capital markets & structured finance, Eversheds Sutherland.
“There’s a real need for appropriate financial incentives to help develop the energy efficiency market to retrofit UK housing and the EEIG is very excited about the potential for the Green Finance Institute’s Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings. We look forward to the outputs of the Coalition’s work and hope that it can also help motivate Government to provide the vital infrastructure investment needed to allow an energy efficiency retrofitting market in the UK to succeed. In order to improve UK homes for the long term and meet our climate targets, retrofitting at scale will be an absolute necessity, and it is only with business and government working together that this will be possible.” Alasdair MacEwen, Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group (EEIG).
“Building societies are supportive of this new, positive and timely Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings, and we look forward to working together. Our newly formed, sector-led Green Finance Taskforce has been set up with the objective of improving the energy efficiency of the existing housing stock – making energy efficiency improvements as seamless as possible for homeowners. The links between us are clear.” Colin Fyfe, chief executive, Hinckley & Rugby Building Society and Chair, Building Societies Association Green Finance Taskforce.
“The LMA is delighted to be part of the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings and to support its work in directing capital towards the retrofit of residential buildings in the private rented sector. There is now global recognition of the key role that green and sustainable finance will play in the decarbonisation of world economies. With this in mind, we are working closely alongside our members to support the development of a number of innovative loan products which have emerged in response to the challenges posed by climate change.” Gemma Lawrence-Pardew, senior associate director – legal, Loan Market Association (LMA).
“Monmouthshire Building Society is very pleased to be part of the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings. We are confident it will deliver tangible, scalable new solutions which will enable our members to make their homes radically more energy-efficient, reducing their fuel bills and contributing to a greener climate for the future.” Graham Sumsion, lending operations manager, Monmouthshire Building Society.
“RICS is proud to be a founding member of the Green Finance Institute’s Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings. It’s critical that we encourage more investment in energy efficient real estate and infrastructure, and RICS has a huge role to play given our global reach and expertise. Our leading international standards, trusted data and insight, and focus on professionalism will be critical to supporting this mission and we look forward to collaborating with our partners to help pioneer better places for future generations.” Sean Tompkins, chief executive, RICS.
“By engaging with property owners in a collaborate manner and using the ever-improving innovative technologies, we will provide quality solutions that will meet the targets consumers and businesses are expecting in changes made to the property and its infrastructure.” Simon Ayers, chief executive, TrustMark.