The webinar “Financing the Upscaling of Building Energy Efficiency Programs for Climate Change Mitigation and Sustainable Development in the Arab Region” organized by UN-ESCWA and the Islamic Development Bank on December 3, 2020, looked at barriers for financing energy efficiency specific to the region, as well as business models and financing instruments to overcome those, based on a toolkit report under finalization.
There was a common agreement among speakers and panellists about the need for more private, public and climate financing to reach the buildings sector in the Arab region, in order to realize its full potential to contribute to the SDG 7’s targets. While some panellists brought forward the positive role of economic recovery and job creation by the buildings sector due to its high economic multiplier effect, others emphasized the role of building up more investment transaction facilitators as mediators among the different stakeholders. Great importance was also given to the need to come to a common understanding among energy efficiency professionals and bankers and investors on what an energy efficiency investment means, and how its impact can be measured.
PEEB contributed with examples of business models for both renovation and new construction that have energy efficiency at its core and presented national energy efficiency incentive programs backed by climate finance that could serve as examples for further scaling up. PEEB also suggested to look beyond financial incentives to non-monetary incentives that can promote the energy efficiency potential in buildings, and to connect current green finance trends to the buildings sector to leverage more financing.