The European Commission is pleased to announce that 49 financial institutions have signed up as members of the European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition (the Coalition), following on from the 27 EU countries which joined the Coalition at the end of last year. These include both public and private financial institutions, such as banks and their representative associations, investment firms, and development banks. As a first step, these new members signed the statement of intent for financial institutions and are now expected to participate in all 3 levels of cooperation of the Coalition: the General Assembly, the Expert Platform, and the National Hubs.
On 19 December 2023, in the margins of the Energy Council, the 27 EU countries became the first members of the Coalition by signing the Joint Declaration on energy efficiency financing and the European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition, underlining the importance of mobilising private investment for energy efficiency and of creating a long-term, viable funding framework for energy efficiency investments. This subsequent integration of financial institutions into the initiative represents a crucial step in establishing the Coalition’s trilateral framework encompassing EU countries, financial institutions and the Commission. The full list of members is now online.
The initial call for membership was open from late June until the end of September 2024 and was directed at financial institutions and their representative associations. Out of 73 applicants, 49 were accepted to join the initiative, with a wide range of institutions spanning across all 27 EU countries.
Next steps
The selected financial institutions will now be engaging directly with the Commission and EU countries, and will be involved in the co-creation of the work programme of the Coalition.
Future calls
Looking ahead, a second call for membership for financial institutions, along with a call for expressions of interest from other relevant entities in the field of energy efficiency financing, is likely to be launched in early 2025. Specific details on these calls will be announced by the Commission in a timely manner.
Background
The European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition is a high-level initiative launched by the Commission to enhance and accelerate the cooperation between financial institutions, EU countries and the Commission with the main objective to further mobilise private financing for energy efficiency. It is the first of a kind cooperation framework, to boost market participation in policy implementation and to provide support to EU countries in the definition of market solutions.
The Coalition was announced in the ‘EU Save Energy’ Communication, part of the REPowerEU plan, and responds to the call made by European leaders to step up investments in energy efficiency by the European Council’s conclusions of 20-21 October 2022, and of 15 December 2022. The legal basis of this initiative is Article 30 (7) of the recast Energy Efficiency Directive (EU/2023/1791).
The initiative builds upon the results of the Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group (EEFIG), created by the Commission and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), which served as a joint platform for cooperation and dialogue with financial institutions on energy efficiency and provided the Commission with concrete studies and recommendations on the way forward for energy efficiency financing. UNEP FI will remain a privileged partner of the Coalition.
Related links
Details
- Publication date
- 30 October 2024
- Author
- Directorate-General for Energy