COVENANT OF MAYORS INVESTMENT FORUM – ENERGY EFFICIENCY FINANCE MARKET PLACE

21 February 2018

Brussels

Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum – Energy Efficiency Finance Market Place

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Table of contents

Background to the event ............................................................................................................ 3

Opening session ........................................................................................................................ 5

Moderator: Julien Guerrier, Director, Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized

Enterprises (EASME) .............................................................................................................. 5

Mechtild Wörsdörfer, Director, European Commission, Directorate General for Energy ......... 5

Julije Domac, Director of REGEA (North-West Croatia Energy Agency), President of

FEDARENE and member of the Covenant of Mayors Board .................................................. 6

Joost Declerck, Promotor Energy Efficiency, Belfius .............................................................. 6

Opening of the market place ...................................................................................................... 7

Parallel sessions of presentations .............................................................................................. 8

Financing climate adaptation ...................................................................................................... 8

CLIMATE REVOLVING FUND (Almada, PT) ......................................................................... 8

MANAGING HEAVY RAIN AND STORM WATER (Copenhagen, DK) ................................... 8

CLIMATE ADAPTATION MEASURES (Bratislava, SK) .......................................................... 8

FLOOD PROOF DISTRICTS (Bilbao, ES) .............................................................................. 9

CLIMATE ADAPTATION BOND (Paris, FR) ........................................................................... 9

Financing urban adaptation to climate change, European Environment Agency Report No

2/2017 .................................................................................................................................... 9

Financing urban mobility .......................................................................................................... 10

ENERGY & MOBILITY FUND (Marche Region, IT) .............................................................. 10

SMART CITY MOBILITY CONCEPT (NL) ............................................................................ 10

ELECTROBUS (Barcelona, ES) ........................................................................................... 10

ZERO EMISSION BUSES (NL) ............................................................................................ 10

AARHUS LIGHT RAIL (Aarhus, DK) ..................................................................................... 11

Financing energy efficiency in public assets ............................................................................. 12

EOL (Ljubljana, SI) ............................................................................................................... 12

ESCOLIMBURG (Province of Limburg, BE) ......................................................................... 12

2020TOGETHER (Region of Piedmont, IT) .......................................................................... 12

NEWLIGHT (HR) .................................................................................................................. 12

RE:FIT (UK) .......................................................................................................................... 13

L-CIF (Cambridgeshire UK) .................................................................................................. 13

Financing home renovation ...................................................................................................... 14

POSITIF (Region of Ile-de-France, FR) ................................................................................ 14

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EnerSHIFT (Region of Liguria, IT) ........................................................................................ 14

LEMON (Region of Emilia-Romagna, IT) .............................................................................. 14

INNOVATE (EU) ................................................................................................................... 14

SUPER HOMES (Tipperary, IE) ........................................................................................... 15

Innovative financing solutions .................................................................................................. 16

EUROPACE (EU) ................................................................................................................. 16

ICPEU (EU) .......................................................................................................................... 16

RESCOOP MECISE (EU) ..................................................................................................... 16

GUARANTEE (EU) ............................................................................................................... 16

LOCAL (EU) ......................................................................................................................... 17

Closing session ........................................................................................................................ 18

Moderator: Yvon Slingenberg, Director, European Commission, Directorate General for

Climate Action ...................................................................................................................... 18

Brian Cassidy, Program Manager, City of Cork .................................................................... 18

Dave Pearson, Director, Star Renewable Energy, Vice President of the

European Heat Pump Association ............................................................................... 19

Peter Sweatman, CEO, Climate Strategy, and Rapporteur of Energy Eficiency Finance

Institutions Group (EEFIG) ................................................................................................... 19

Brian Kilkelly, Development Lead of the Urban Transition Team, Climate-KIC ..................... 20

List of Stands ........................................................................................................................... 21

The information and views set out in this document are those of the author(s) and do not

necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European Union

institutions and bodies, nor any person acting on their behalf, may be held responsible for the

use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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BACKGROUND TO THE EVENT

Accelerating investment in energy efficiency, clean mobility and cities' resilience is key to

meeting Europe’s commitments under the Paris agreement and goals for 2020 and 2030. This

will bring significant benefits for all European citizens and companies in terms of jobs and

sustainable growth, lower energy bills, improved health and security of energy supply.

The European Commission's communication on Clean Energy for All Europeans highlights the

energy efficiency first principle, and establishes the Smart Finance for Smart Buildings initiative,

which includes practical solutions to further unlock private financing for energy efficiency and

renewables in buildings. This initiative builds upon the Investment Plan for Europe, including the

European Fund for Strategic Investments, and the European Structural and Investment Funds.

The Covenant of Mayors, launched in 2008, has become a key European initiative to drive

forward cities action to support implementation of the EU energy and climate targets beyond

2020 with over 7,700 signatory cities representing 250 million inhabitants.

The Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum – Energy Efficiency Finance Market Place was

organised on the 21st February 2018 in Brussels by the European Commission's Directorate-

Generals for Energy and Climate Action and the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized

Enterprises (EASME) in collaboration with the Covenant of Mayors. It gathered more than 400

participants, mainly practitioners of finance for climate adaptation and sustainable energy to

share their experiences in developing investment projects, and to inspire their peers to replicate

such solutions in their own cities and regions.

A total of 25 inspiring projects and initiatives from all around Europe were showcased within five

thematic strands of interactive workshops:

financing climate adaptation,

financing urban mobility,

financing energy efficiency in public assets,

financing home renovation,

innovative financing solutions.

The event helped to building capacity of participants in understanding the mechanics behind

successful investment projects in order to support them with their own financial engineering of

investment portfolios. The event also provided participants with detailed information on the

various EU funding opportunities available to support them in implementing and financing

sustainable energy and climate adaptation measures.

All presentations can be found online:

https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/events/covenant-mayors-investment-forum-energy-efficiency-

finance-market-place

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Sustainable Energy Investment Forums

These proceedings were produced under the Sustainable Energy Investment (SEI) Forums

contract. As part of the Smart Finance for Smart Buildings initiative, the European Commission

is organising a series of “Sustainable Energy Investment Forums” to enhance the capacity of

and co-operation between public and private stakeholders to develop large-scale investment

programmes and financing schemes for sustainable energy. The SEI Forums contract is

delivering more than 30 events in around 15 Member States between 2016 and 2019.

Information on past and upcoming events can be found on the SEI Forums webpage.

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OPENING SESSION

Moderator: Julien Guerrier, Director, Executive Agency for

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME)

Mr Guerrier welcomed the participants and presented the concept

and structure of the event. A few years ago, an event such as this,

with so many participants, would only have happened if we were

talking about home or car finance. Now we are talking about

financing climate adaptation and energy efficiency and have

attracted over 400 participants for the event from public authorities,

finance and industry.

EASME is managing a number of relevant programmes on behalf of

the European Commission, including the energy efficiency and

climate action parts of Horizon 2020, LIFE and Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE), which was

instrumental in supporting the early stages of the Covenant of Mayors initiative in Europe.

The Marketplace has been set up in order to share best practice and to showcase innovative

financing solutions. Over 25 projects will share their experiences with their peers on financing

solutions for climate adaptation, sustainable transport and energy efficiency initiatives. Hence,

this event brings together the Covenant of Mayors and the Energy Efficiency Finance

Marketplace to support cities and other stakeholder to learn from each other and to build front-

running, climate-resilient and energy efficient communities.

Mechtild Wörsdörfer, Director, European Commission,

Directorate General for Energy

Ms Woersdoerfer stressed that energy and climate policies are at

the top of the European policy agenda. To this end, the Clean

Energy for all Europeans package, adopted in November 2016,

focusses on three key issues: putting energy efficiency first, making

Europe a global leader in renewable energy and bringing consumers

to the heart of the energy system. The Commission also adopted the

2013 Strategy on adaptation to climate change, in order to make

Europe more climate-resilient.

The Clean Energy package introduced the Smart Finance for Smart Buildings initiative

that aims at up-scaling private finance for energy efficiency investments. Moreover, the

"Natural Capital Financing Facility" finances projects applying nature-based solutions

for adaptation to climate change. In addition, the European Commission has put structures

in place - such as the Covenant of Mayors to help cities to meet their CO2 reduction targets and

increase their resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change.

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Ms. Woersdoerfer concluded that those initiatives set the right political and regulatory

framework and she expressed her expectation that the investment forum/market place provides

a good opportunity to share best practices on clean energy and climate-resilient investments in

cities.

Julije Domac, Director of REGEA (North-West Croatia Energy

Agency), President of FEDARENE and member of the Covenant

of Mayors Board

Mr Domac reminded participants that the Covenant of Mayors is

celebrating ten years in Europe, ten years during which it helped

cities and regions to meet their CO2 reduction and climate adaptation

objectives. The Covenant of Mayors also facilitates dialogue

between cities and regions and the EU. Cities and regions are

closest to the people and implement projects such as renovating

schools and other buildings of public interest and street lighting.

Within regions, energy agencies are one of the main drivers of the

energy transition and they bring forward tremendous opportunities for investment and

innovation. In this context, ManagEnergy, a capacity building programme dedicated to energy

agencies with a focus on financing energy efficiency, has just completed its first Masterclass in

February 2018.

Mr Domac mentioned the necessary transition from grants to the use of more private capital.

European funds have a catalyzing effect and can be used to attract more private capital.

Joost Declerck, Promotor Energy Efficiency, Belfius

Mr Declerck highlighted that the main banks in Europe have a

lot of experience in financing energy efficiency measures as

well as renewable projects. For example, Belfius has a

sustainable energy investment track record, with projects in

offshore wind, solar energy, green mortgages and green

consumer programmes, including investments in renewable

energy cooperatives (RESCOOPs). It set up the Smart Cities,

Climate Action and Circular Economy programme of €800

million with the assistance of the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Mr Declerck stressed that for energy efficiency projects, guarantees are the main issue.

Through Private Finance for Energy Efficiency (PF4EE) it is possible to provide low cost

financing, thanks to a portfolio guarantee covering 80% of the project finance. In addition, one-

stop-shop solutions have a role to play in creating partnerships with construction companies,

energy service companies and others to facilitate energy refurbishment programmes. ESCO

financing has a lot of advantages and is often used for projects with a payback time up to 10

years, however, it rarely covers deep renovation projects. For the banks, the amount of

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investment in a typical energy efficiency project is often too small, therefore standardisation and

aggregation of projects is important. .

There is still a huge potential to further improve energy efficiency. Public entities are only

renovating 1% of their buildings per year. To accelerate investments, the public and private

sectors need to work closely together and actively engage the financial sector.

OPENING OF THE MARKET PLACE

Julien Guerrier, Director, EASME

The market place was officially opened. It featured parallel sessions of presentations in five

tracks;

• financing climate adaptation

• financing urban mobility

• financing energy efficiency in public assets

• financing home renovation

• innovative financing solutions

Additionally, there were stands for delegates to visit and exchange information. The list of the

stands is provided at the end of this document.

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PARALLEL SESSIONS OF PRESENTATIONS

FINANCING CLIMATE ADAPTATION

CLIMATE REVOLVING FUND (Almada, PT)

Catarina Freitas, City Council of Almada

The “Almada Less Carbon Climate Fund” aims at reducing Almada’s carbon footprint by

financing both climate mitigation and adaptation investments. Thanks to the city’s participation

in the EU-funded INFINITE Solutions project, the fund was upgraded to a revolving fund in

2016. This means that the cost savings resulting from the implemented climate mitigation and

adaptation measures are now directly returning to the fund, ensuring sustainable leverage of

the fund and boosting further investments in tackling climate change and accelerating the clean

energy transition in Almada. The size of the revolving fund was €500,000 in 2016. This project

received support from the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.

MANAGING HEAVY RAIN AND STORM WATER (Copenhagen, DK) Jan Rasmussen and Per Andreasen , City of Copenhagen

The City of Copenhagen is implementing a cloud burst plan which includes more than 300

construction projects and an investment of €1.5 billion from private and public sources.

Financing of the public program is a combination of water tax and municipality tax, where the

increased water tax is offset by lower insurance premiums for householders. The solution is

based on green and blue infrastructure surfaces combined with pipes and gives the city a

unique opportunity to improve quality of life of Copenhagen residents by creating green and

blue recreational areas and a more diverse city. The first projects have been finished and over

the next 20 years the construction work will change not only the way the city manages the

water, but also how the city will look.

CLIMATE ADAPTATION MEASURES (Bratislava, SK)

Martina Tichá and Eva Streberova, Bratislava City Hall

Bratislava city has created a small-grant scheme for sustainable water management

installations in order to support the use of adaptation measures at household level, available

since 2016. Eligible applicants can be refunded for 50% of the total cost of measures (up to

maximum of €1,000). The subsidy system is a follow-up activity of the project “Bratislava is

preparing for the climate change - pilot application of measures in the field of the sustainable

rainwater management in urban areas” which was supported by EEA Grants and Norway

Grants with co-financing from the Slovak Republic state budget and Bratislava´s municipal

budget. This project supported creating over 30 individual adaptation measures in 10 sites by

Bratislava city and other project partners.

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FLOOD PROOF DISTRICTS (Bilbao, ES)

Asier Abaunza, Bilbao City Council

The Regional Basque Government, Bilbao City Council, the Port Authority of Bilbao and various

private entities created a public–private partnership to implement climate adaptation measures

when rehabilitating an industrial site on an inner-city river island. Key measures include the

elevation of the ground level of buildings and public green spaces, the opening of the Deusto

canal (€20.9 million) and flood protection barriers (€5.1 million) as well as the structural

rehabilitation of the river bank and the storm-water tanks (€4.74 million).

CLIMATE ADAPTATION BOND (Paris, FR)

Yann Françoise, City of Paris

The first Paris Climate Bond was issued in November 2015 to finance projects in climate

mitigation and adaptation. The total size of the bond is €300 million, with a running time until

May 2031. 20% (€60 million) of the bond funds have been assigned to adaptation projects. The

bond targets private investors who consider it a secondary advantage to invest in the

sustainability of the city of Paris. They will receive a profit rate of 1.75 % per year. Annual

reporting ensures transparency, whereby the issuer has to justify the allocation of money to

projects complying with the set criteria. Currently, two projects with a climate adaptation

objective are being implemented: planting 20,000 trees in the city and creating 30 hectares of

new parks by 2020. The bond was very successful in raising cheap and long-term funding.

Important success factors were the city having a long-term climate plan, involving stakeholders,

and the cooperation between the city's technical and the financial departments. A second bond

(sustainability bond) of €320 million has been issued in 2017, this time also involving the social

department. Climate bonds can be replicated in other cities but the bonds' size and rate might

be different. The demand from investors of these climate bonds should increase in the future

due to the increasing pressure to decarbonise their funds.

Financing urban adaptation to climate change, European

Environment Agency Report No 2/2017

Municipalities across Europe increasingly acknowledge the need to adapt to climate change,

have found innovative ways to overcome the funding challenge and have started implementing

measures. More examples are collected and presented in this publication as an inspiration. It

offers insights into lessons learned on the ground regarding the most successful approaches,

the difficulties encountered and overcome and the key success factors in financing local

adaptation action.

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/financing-urban-adaptation-to-climate-change

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FINANCING URBAN MOBILITY

ENERGY & MOBILITY FUND (Marche Region, IT)

Cinzia Colangelo, Marche Region & Silvia Marsili, Artigiancassa

The "Energy and Mobility Fund - FEM" represents an innovative financing mechanism which

aims to accelerate public and private energy investments, combining regional resources with

European funds. The fund was set up under the MARTE project and has a volume of €20

million and provides low interest loans for the implementation of measures aimed at increasing

low-emission vehicles for public transport, energy efficiency in public buildings, lighting

networks, and industry. The fund has already issued over €10 million of loans to projects from

energy service companies (ESCOs), Private Public Partnerships (PPP), public

entities/companies, transport service operators and SMEs. The financial instrument is expected

to support about 250 investment projects. This project received support from the Intelligent

Energy Europe Programme.

SMART CITY MOBILITY CONCEPT (NL)

Talitha Koek, GVB Exploitatie B.V. & Patrick Weizen, ERAC

The City of Amsterdam is currently preparing a Smart City Mobility Concept including a

regenerative braking energy system for the metro, an IT backbone for the overall mobility

concept, the purchase of 67 electric buses including the charging infrastructure and 12 hybrid

plug-in electric harbour ferries. The investment targeted is over €165 million. This project

received support from the ELENA initiative.

ELECTROBUS (Barcelona, ES)

Josep-Maria Villa Armengol, Transport de Barcelona

The ELECTROBUS project supported the Municipality of Barcelona and TMB (Transports

Metropolitans de Barcelona) to develop a prototype for retrofitting diesel buses to become

hybrid electric ones. Over €36 million of investment was triggered with the procurement of 73

hybrid buses. This project received support from the ELENA initiative.

ZERO EMISSION BUSES (NL)

Maarten Post, Region of Brabant

The project accelerates the transition to zero emission bus transport concessions in the

southern provinces of The Netherlands. With new concession deadlines that came up in this

region, the region developed new tender specifications to include zero emission standards. So

far, €10.4 million of investment into zero emission buses has been confirmed from the pilots

and €150 million has been confirmed to be invested the next 8 years based on the documents

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and information from concessionaires. In total this represents nearly 490 buses, of which

around 60 are already in operation. This project received support from the ELENA initiative.

AARHUS LIGHT RAIL (Aarhus, DK)

Britta Degn, Aarhus Letbane

The purpose of the AALRT Programme was to support initiatives that can secure the integration

and transformation of existing rail lines into light rail with rail freight capacity. The decision

includes electrification of 125 km of existing tracks and will help to increase the energy

optimization of the light rail system and control and maintenance centre in Aarhus. This project

received support from the ELENA initiative.

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FINANCING ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN PUBLIC ASSETS

EOL (Ljubljana, SI)

Alenka Loose, City of Ljubljana & Marko Umberger, EOL Project Team

The EOL programme launched two tenders for Energy Performance Contracts to retrofit 76

public buildings, including deep retrofits, using an ESCO model. In addition, more than 170

smaller energy efficiency investments were implemented within the project. Overall, the project

triggered over €49 million of energy investments. This project received support from the ELENA

initiative.

ESCOLIMBURG (Province of Limburg, BE)

Patrick Boucneau, Province of Limburg & Dirk Schreurs, Infrax

In the ESCOLimburg2020 project, the public energy grid operator Infrax developed an

integrated service to accelerate the energy renovation of municipal buildings, covering all steps

from audits to works implementation and finance. This public ESCO service is organised in the

context of the implementation of local climate plans (SEAPs) for the Covenant of Mayors. Over

€20 million have been invested in the refurbishment of public buildings. This project received

support from the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.

2020TOGETHER (Region of Piedmont, IT)

Silvio De Nigris, Region of Piemonte & Stefano Dotta, Environment Park

The 2020Together project launched an investment programme based on Public Private

Partnerships and Third Party Investment (TPI) involving regional, provincial and local

authorities, financial institutions and local industries/investors. The project launched investment

into the energy efficiency refurbishment of public buildings and public street lighting points with

an overall investment of €12.5M. The project applied two different approaches using Energy

Performance Contracting: a bundling scheme for small and medium municipalities for buildings

and street lights and a pooling scheme for the regional capital City of Torino (more than 100

buildings). The project demonstrated the implementation of an innovative approach to energy

efficiency investment for the public sector. This project received support from the Intelligent

Energy Europe Programme.

NEWLIGHT (HR) Ivan Pržulj, North-West Croatia Regional Energy Agency

The NEWLIGHT project supports the modernisation of public lighting systems in 57 Croatian

cities and municipalities based in Zagreb County and Krapina-Zagorje County. The project will

replace around 60,000 luminaires by more energy-efficient technologies such as LED and

installation of power control (dimming), with the potential to achieve energy and cost savings of

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60%. Planned Investment is around €20M and will be realised mainly through Energy

Performance Contracting (EPC). This project received support from the ELENA initiative.

RE:FIT (UK)

Rachel Toresen-Owuor, Local Partnerships

Re:FIT has set up a framework agreement based on an energy performance contract (EPC)

model with a savings guarantee to implement energy efficiency and local energy generation

measures in public sector buildings. In the UK, RE:FIT has delivered more than 700 energy

improvement projects. Nearly 250 public sector organisations have signed up for projects worth

£140 million. Payback periods run for 7 to 10 years typically. These projects are saving 50,000

tonnes of CO2 and reducing energy bills by more than £11 million every year. This project

received support from the ELENA initiative.

L-CIF (Cambridgeshire UK)

Cherie Gregoire, Cambridgeshire County Council

L-CIF successfully established an Energy Investment Unit and Local Authority Fund of €34

million in Cambridgeshire (UK). This has delivered energy efficiency and renewable energy

measures in 43 schools and 7 public buildings through energy performance contracts - at a

value of €14 million. The fund has also supported a 12 MW solar park investment of €10 million,

which is now generating electricity for 3,000 homes and providing income for the authority of

approximately €365,000 per year. A smart energy grid project on a park and ride site, including

1 MW of PV panels with battery storage and electric vehicle charging points is under

development. This project received support from the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.

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FINANCING HOME RENOVATION

POSITIF (Region of Ile-de-France, FR)

Raphaël Claustre, SEM Energies POSIT'IF

The Ile-de-France Region launched a semi-public Energy Service Company (ESCO) that

developed an innovative and all-inclusive deep renovation package for condominiums with

guaranteed energy savings and provision of Third Party Finance (TPF) using Energy

Performance Contracting (EPC). The project has already delivered an investment of €37 million

in 8 condominiums (2,100 apartments), with another 40 contracts in the pipeline, and its model

is now replicated in many French regions. Energies POSIT'IF received a loan over €100 million

from the EIB thanks to the guarantee made possible through the European Fund for Strategic

Investment. This project received support from the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.

EnerSHIFT (Region of Liguria, IT)

Giuseppe Sorgente, Region of Liguria

The main aim of the EnerSHIFT project is the preparation of an energy retrofit investment

portfolio in the public social housing sector of Liguria (Italy) by promoting and applying financing

models, which are very innovative in the region. Energy audits and feasibility studies will be

performed on 44 social housing buildings and tenants (around 3,500 families) are actively

engaged with regard to acceptance and behavioural issues. On this basis, investment tenders

will be launched for energy performance contracts (EPCs) with energy service companies

(ESCOs). During the project duration, the project will prompt investments of around €15 million.

This project received support from the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.

LEMON (Region of Emilia-Romagna, IT)

Claudia Carani, Agenzia per l'energia e lo sviluppo sostenibile associazione

(AESS)

The project LEMON focuses on the energy retrofit of 622 private and public dwellings in the

social housing sector of two regions of Emilia-Romagna by establishing an innovative financing

approach. It expects to trigger energy efficiency investments of €15.29 million by applying EPC

model contracts combined with a new green lease concept based on the energy performance of

the housing units (Energy Performance Tenancy Agreement). This project receives support

from the Horizon 2020 programme.

INNOVATE (EU)

Jana Cicmanova, Energy-Cities

INNOVATE will develop and roll out deep energy retrofit packages in 11 target territories,

ideally through setting up one-stop-shops. The project targets private residential sector – single

family houses and condominiums. An effective package will include bundled services, notably:

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tailor made products, marketing and communication tools, technical assistance for energy

renovation, long-term affordable financing, and guaranteed results. This project receives

support from the Horizon 2020 programme.

SUPER HOMES (Tipperary, IE)

Paul Kenny, Tipperary Energy Agency

Super Homes is aiming to be the complete one stop shop for domestic deep retrofit in Ireland.

To date 84 homes have been deep retrofitted at an investment of €3.2 million aiming to achieve

€15 million of investment between now and 2020 using a variety of funding sources.

Streamlined access to loan finance will be an important building block for the next three years.

This project received support from the ELENA initiative.

PICARDIE PASS RENOVATION (Region of Picardie, FR)

Alice Morcrette, Régie Régionale du Service Public de l'Efficacité Energétique

The region has set up a one-stop-shop for private home owners to improve the energy

performance of their homes. The first phase targets in total 1,840 homes and an energy

investment of over €50 million. This project received support from the ELENA initiative.

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INNOVATIVE FINANCING SOLUTIONS

EUROPACE (EU)

Eduard Puig MacLean, GNE Finance

EuroPACE aims to test and roll-out the property assessed clean energy (PACE) model, which

is an innovative on-tax financing mechanism for energy efficiency and renewable energy

improvements on private property. The project promoters will work with local and national

authorities to set up PACE schemes that will result in the deployment of private capital,

facilitation of risk reduction of energy efficiency investments, provision of technical assistance to

energy consumers and standardisation of underwriting requirements. This project receives

support from the H2020 programme.

ICPEU (EU)

Steve Fawkes, EnergyPro

ICPEU project aims to unlock private investments into the energy efficiency market by

standardizing the way projects are developed, documented and measured. With now more than

30 projects and programmes adopting the Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ (IREE™)

Certification in Europe, and 17 firms part of the ICP Investor Network, representing more than €

1.5 billion in capital looking for projects to invest in, ICP is creating useful tools to increase

capital flow in energy efficiency. This project received support from the H2020 programme.

RESCOOP MECISE (EU)

Karel Derveaux, Ecopower

The project brings together well-established citizens' energy cooperatives (REScoops) from

different EU Member States that will develop projects and set up innovative approaches in

order to launch concrete investments by European citizens and local authorities, both in

renewable energy and energy efficiency. The creation of a REScoop-dedicated financing

vehicle on a European level should allow efficient and flexible financing of a wide range (in

scale and type) of sustainable energy investments with the involvement of citizens all over

Europe. Over the project duration, RESCOOP MECISE is expected to trigger more than €110

million of sustainable energy investments. This project receives support from the H2020

programme.

GUARANTEE (EU)

Christoph Lahenke, Berliner Energieagentur

Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) is an energy service model which has been applied

successfully in the modernisation of mostly public buildings for 20 years. However, EPC still

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faces substantial barriers, such as the split incentives dilemma. Within the guarantEE project,

14 experienced partners from advanced and emerging ESCO markets develop innovative

business and financing models for ESCO projects in the public and private sector by addressing

these barriers through a triple-win-approach. Facilitators will have a key role in this. Moreover,

the project offers a pre-check that helps building owners and tenants to get an idea of the

potential and suitability of EPC for their facilities. The developed models will be applied in 33

pilot projects involving private and public building owners and will trigger investments of over

€11 million. This project receives support from the H2020 programme.

LOCAL (EU)

Victor Gancel, Climate KIC

The Low Carbon City Lab focuses on building expert support platforms for cities in finance and

facilitating matchmaking between cities and investors. The City Finance Lab has the ambition to

trigger €500 million of investments by 2025. The sustainable urban infrastructure investment

gap calls for better collaboration between public and private stakeholders, solution providers,

investors and most importantly municipal authorities.

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CLOSING SESSION

Moderator: Yvon Slingenberg, Director, European Commission,

Directorate General for Climate Action

Ms Slingenberg stressed that climate action has many

co-benefits, such as improved citizens' health and

increased revenues for cities and business. Experience

in Europe has shown that economic growth and tackling

climate change can go hand in hand: the European

Union has seen a 23% decrease in emissions since

1990, while GDP has grown by 53% over the same

period. Many technologies and measures to tackle

climate change are available today, but access to

financing remains a challenge. The European Commission has set up many instruments,

including some recent new ones, like the URBIS advisory service through the European

Investment Bank and the recent amendment of the Eurostat guidance on accounting treatment

for Energy Performance Contracting.

It is necessary to increase spending on climate adaptation and sustainable energy measures

and to redirect funds away from unsustainable activities. The Paris agreement clearly states

that we need to make finance flows consistent with low carbon and climate-resilient

development.

Brian Cassidy, Program Manager, City of Cork

The low cost of fossil fuels was identified by Mr Cassidy

as the main problem when trying to introduce energy

efficiency measures. Cork has more than 20 years of

experience with energy efficiency projects. The projects

cover instruments in public buildings and energy

efficient lighting, funded through a pay-as-you-save

scheme. Approximately €25 million has been invested in

social housing renovation, typically on loft and cavity

wall insulation.

Mr Cassidy also made the link to the recent financial crises and the resulting recession. The

crisis increased people's reluctance to take on new debt for home renovation. Mr Cassidy

highlighted the need for the finance and banking sector to get involved on a major scale in the

energy efficient retrofitting of homes. He called for the EU to support in rendering energy

efficient retrofitting less onerous for citizens. Mr Cassidy pointed out the need for awareness

raising as well as that the energy and climate-friendly transition is another development like the

past ones when fresh water, sewage and electricity systems were brought to the homes.

Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum – Energy Efficiency Finance Market Place

Page 19

Dave Pearson, Director, Star Renewable Energy, Vice President

of the European Heat Pump Association

Mr Pearson explained that heat pumps can significantly

contribute to an efficient energy transition, to a

reduction of expensive fossil fuels' imports and to an

improved air quality in cities (by reducing NOx

pollutants from fossil fuel heating systems). He called

for cities to be responsible and take measures.

Tailored solutions are needed - for example, individual

older and larger buildings may be better served from

district heat pumps than by individual pumps.

Under current market conditions with very low gas and coal prices and low prices of emission

allowances under the EU emissions trading system (ETS), clean solutions like heat pumps face

a difficult market environment. A stronger price signal via the ETS, taxation or legislation would

therefore be welcome.

Peter Sweatman, CEO, Climate Strategy, and Rapporteur of

Energy Eficiency Finance Institutions Group (EEFIG)

Mr Sweatman expressed his satisfaction that the

Forum/Marketplace has brought together over 400

participants and that it is linking supply and demand for

energy efficiency solutions.

Cities are becoming an increasingly important part of

the solution, including as direct energy users. In Spain,

only 20% of public authorities have replaced lighting

with LEDs even though there is a plethora of financial

instruments available to support this type of work.

City administrations should be using their planning powers, skills and the workforce to upgrade

and improve their citizens' homes, exploring the available financing offers. If householders are

planning a new kitchen, then it should become an obvious choice to extend the financing for

this with an energy efficiency loan. If this leads to an increase in property value, then this would

be something that a bank could lend against. Cities should engage with local bank branches,

bringing them into an open discussion.

EEFIG has had many technical discussions and has allowed policy makers, financial

institutions, and others stakeholders to discuss freely. We need to make more use of such

forums, including those convened by cities. These can bring together financial, technical and

other solutions.

Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum – Energy Efficiency Finance Market Place

Page 20

Brian Kilkelly, Development Lead of the Urban Transition Team,

Climate-KIC

Mr Kilkelly emphasised that there are a lot of already

existing great innovations and ideas to address the

challenge of emissions reduction. Innovation will help to

address this challenge, but it does not always turn into

implementation. For example, low carbon concrete was

invented ten years ago, but it is hardly used. We need to

ensure that such technologies are deployed quickly and

we need to understand the mechanisms that can be

used to stimulate scale.

Cities need to make systemic changes, to take into account the opportunities and the positive

return on investment from existing measures and technologies. Climate-KIC’s Climathon is now

working in 100 cities around the world and connecting city ambition with citizens.

There is also a joint programme called Reinventing Cities with the C40 cities group. Other

issues that should be explored relate to making use of and transforming city land ownership as

well as raising citizens' awareness.

Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum – Energy Efficiency Finance Market Place

Page 21

LIST OF STANDS

Stand Website

Covenant of Mayors http://www.covenantofmayors.eu

Executive Agency for Small and Medium-

sized Enterprises (EASME) https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en

European Investment Bank (EIB) www.eib.org/

European Energy Efficiency Fund –

Deutsche Bank http://www.eeef.eu/home.html

Urban Innovation Actions Permanent

Secretariat http://www.uia-initiative.eu/en

European Innovation Partnership – Smart

Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC) http://eu-smartcities.eu/

ManagEnergy http://www.managenergy.net/

Project Climate Adaptation – City of

Copenhagen

http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/metadata/case-

studies/the-economics-of-managing-heavy-rains-

and-stormwater-in-copenhagen-2013-the-

cloudburst-management-plan

Project Climate Adaptation Measures –

City of Bratislava

https://www.covenantofmayors.eu/index.php?optio

n=com_attachments&task=download&id=247 and

http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/metadata/case-

studies/eea-grants-supporting-the-city-of-

bratislava-to-implement-climate-adaptation-

measures

Project INNOVATE – Energy Cities http://www.financingbuildingrenovation.eu/

Project 2020TOGETHER – Region of

Piedmont

http://www.provincia.torino.gov.it/ambiente/energia

/progetti/2020TOGETHER/index_en.html

Project INVESTOR CONFIDENCE

PROJECT EUROPE (ICPEU) –

EnergyPro

http://europe.eeperformance.org/

Project EUROPACE – GNE Finance http://www.europace2020.eu/

Project EnerSHIFT – Region of Liguria

http://www.regione.liguria.it/argomenti/conoscere-

e-vivere-il-territorio/edilizia/progetto-europeo-

enershift.html

Project MARTE – Region of Marche http://www.marteproject.eu/en/

Project SUPER HOMES – Tipperary

Energy Agency https://superhomes.ie/