Road-mapping residential energy retrofits: breaking down the financial barriers
28 May 2020
Professor Sarah Sayce is a member of the Green Finance Institute’s Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings (CEEB), which has recently published its first report, Financing energy efficient buildings – the path to retrofit at scale.
The report demonstrates the urgent need to increase the pace and scale of investment into the energy efficiency and resilience of UK residential buildings. Further, the report argues that there is potential to contribute substantially to a post-Covid-19 green and inclusive recovery, setting out a portfolio of financial solutions to catalyse take-up on a national scale.
“I am delighted to be part of The CEEB. Residential buildings are a key contributor to carbon emissions; decarbonising our homes is critical to the achievement of UK and global 2050 emission reduction targets. For too long attention and regulation has focused on the new build sector, despite the fact that most of the homes that will exist in 2050 are already built. The coalition has brought together a wide range of influential stakeholders who collective can develop and drive financial initiatives to facilitate the required building transformation.” - Professor Sarah Sayce, Real Estate & Planning
CEEB was established by the UK Government and City of London Corporation-backed Green Finance Institute in December 2019. The Coalition is formed of global experts from financial services, local and national government, energy and construction industries, civil society and the University of Reading as the only academic institution involved in the CEEB. Using this unique combined knowledge of the finance and building sectors, CEEB has generated a portfolio of 21 ‘demonstrator’ financial solutions towards the retrofit of UK homes to improve energy performance standards.
The Green Finance Institute will continue to progress the development of these demonstrator financial solutions, responding to the Government’s Green Finance Strategy ambition to build the market for green homes. This development will support the UK in delivering its commitment to move towards net-zero carbon whilst growing the economy.
