The Renovate Europe Campaign and Positive Money Europe co-organised the webinar “How to unlock the Renovation Wave” on the occasion of the launch of the Unlock campaign. The event took place online on Wednesday, May 11th from 11am to 12.15am CEST.

The current recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings directive (EPBD) proposes comprehensive measures to accelerate energy efficient renovation of residential buildings. However, financing the Renovation Wave remains a complex challenge. The Commission expects a funding gap of around € 275 billion per year by 2030. Public funding for renovation purposes is often too slow to deploy, too bureaucratic, and not scalable enough due to the magnitude of the challenge.

ECB research estimates that around € 214 billion/year of the needed additional funding should be covered by bank loans. The text reviewed by the Commission rightly emphasised the role of energy efficiency loans and mortgages in the Renovation Wave by introducing the concept of Mortgage Portfolio Standard. However, banks lack incentives to offer cheap lending products.

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 during the online webinar.

Adrian Joyce (Renovate Europe) will present on the current state of play of the renovation challenge;
Peter Sweatman (Climate Strategy) will introduce the EU renovation loan;
Uuriintuya Batsaikhan (Positive Money Europe) will show how the ECB can finance home renovations through its refinancing operations and TLTROs programme.

A discussion with Member of the EU Parliament Sean Kelly, EU Commission’s Karlis Goldstein, and Jennifer Johnson from the European Mortgage Federation followed with a dedicated space for questions.

The event closed with Vicky Van Eyck (Positive Money Europe) introducing the Unlock campaign.