A recording of Positive Money Europe’s latest webinar is now available. What role can the banking sector play in the Renovation Wave? How can the European Central Bank unlock affordable green loans and green mortgages? Our experts answered these questions.

On May 11th, Positive Money Europe and Renovate Europe held a webinar titled How to Unlock the Renovation Wave on occasion of the launch of our Unlock campaign. The topic of discussion focused on the role of the banking sector in financing energy efficiency renovations. Banks have a great potential to unlock the funding necessary to enable this transition thanks to their access to cheap funding. How can we make sure banks are incentivised to lend money to green our homes? And how can the European Central Bank ensure that these loans are accessible and affordable to consumers?

Our experts discussed these questions in a lively debate facilitated by Sam Morgan. In the first part of the webinar, we had Adrian Joyce (Renovate Europe), Peter Sweatman (Climate Strategy), and our economist, Uuriintuya Batsaikhan give three short introductory presentations. Adrian discussed in-depth the state of play of energy efficiency renovations, which will involve 97% of the existing EU building stock and require the mobilisation of all stakeholders. Peter introduced the European Renovation Loan (ERL), a long-term financing instrument with a zero coupon structure that allows families to service the loan at the moment of sale, succession, or after 30 years. Finally, Uuriintuya discussed how the ECB could apply a green discount rate to banks lending for EE renovation purposes, which would lower borrowing costs to consumers. 

We were honoured to have EU Commission’s Karlis Goldstein, Member of the EU Parliament Sean Kelly and Jennifer Johnson from the European Mortgage Federation in the discussion that followed. Among other things, the discussants highlighted the role of the EPBD in strengthening private financing to speed up energy efficient renovations.

Our Deputy Executive Director, Vicky Van Eyck, concluded by introducing our Unlock campaign, which aims at gathering people-driven support for massive public and private funding to enable renovation of their homes at an affordable cost. 

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Check out the recording of the webinar here.

You can also find below the slides that were shown during the event:

• Renovate Europe – The Renovation Challenge: State of Play
• Climate Strategy – The European Renovation Loan
• Positive Money Europe – The case for an ECB green discount rate