BSA joins Green Finance Institute coalition for the energy efficiency of buildings
The Green Finance Institute today announced the formation of the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings (CEEB) which the BSA, along with a number of its members, form part of.
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.
Colin Fyfe, Hinckley & Rugby Building Society CEO & Chair of the BSA Green Finance Taskforce commented: “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.”
“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.
More information and full list of participating organisations available here.
