Peter Sweatman: And how much of the $100 trillion is earmarked for energy efficiency, Mark?

On November 3rd, during the first week of COP26, Mark Carney, the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, announced that 450 financial organisations from 45 countries pledged to deliver the estimated $100 trillion of finance needed for net zero over the next three decades. This is the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) alliance of over $130 trillion of private capital that is committed to transforming the economy for net zero.

The next day, also at COP26 in Glasgow, the EU’s Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group (EEFIG) launched two landmark reports in a side event at the EU Pavilion. The first updates EEFIG’s 2015 report that provides policy and market-led recommendations on how to increase the energy efficiency investment flows in European buildings, industry, and SMEs. The second provides statistically significant evidence that shows that lending against energy efficient buildings produces lower defaults and arrears. This data came from 800,000 mortgages from four EEFIG members across four European countries, and for the first time is controlled for income, wealth, typology, and other possible leading factors.

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