Green, healthy buildings as economic stimulus

Summary

We welcome the EU’s intention to ‘Rebuild Europe’ by accelerating gren building renovation^[1] to support economic recovery, to support our health^[2], to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy security.

A recent survey^[3] of hundreds of central bank and national finance department officals found that retrofitting buildings was one of the top ways to stimulate growth and cut carbon emissions. A review^[4] of thirty five building retrofit programs found an average of 19 jobs created per €1m investment.

Pre-pandemic, an estimated 7.5 million jobs were involved in the renovation of buildings. A tripling of building renovation rates could create an additional 2 – 4 million jobs in the construction sector with additional jobs created amongst product manufacturers^[5].

However, energy efficiency investment in buildings and industry has stagnated and is certainly not growing at levels required to reach the Paris Agreement goals^[6].

For the last six years, DWS has been advising the EU as a founding member of the Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group. EEFIG is convened by the EU Commission and the UN Environment Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), bringing together ~200 finance and efficiency experts. DWS (this author), is leading the Steering Committee’s focus on the covid-19 recovery package with EEFIG's rapporteur Peter Sweatman.

We commend the proposed EU Building Renovation facility^[7] as developed by Mr. Sweatman (in a personal capacity). DWS’s proposals will increase the probability of a successful ‘Rebuild Europe’ strategy.

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