OREANDA-NEWS   Increasing financing for the renovation of buildings to make them more energy efficient will be a key topic at a conference on financing energy efficiency in Spain and Portugal which will take place tomorrow in Madrid. The event will focus on how to unlock private financing for energy efficiency in these two countries. Key topics of discussion will be increasing financing for the energy efficient renovation of buildings, organising discussions on sustainable energy investments and, more generally, developing and structuring energy efficiency investment programmes. The participants come from the European institutions, Spanish and Portuguese authorities, financial institutions and businesses.

The conference is organised by the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) on behalf of the European Commission, in partnership with the Instituto de Cr?dito Oficial, the UN Environment Finance Initiative and the Instituto para la Diversificaci?n y ahorro de la Energ?a. It is organised as part of the Sustainable Energy Investment Forums contract, funded by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union. This contract aims to foster more investment in sustainable energy from private sources, while using public financing in the most effective way. Public sources include the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), which is implemented through five different funds, in particular the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Over 2014-2020, the ERDF is providing investment in energy efficiency in public and residential buildings and in enterprises, as well as in renewable energy and smart energy infrastructure, in both Spain (close to €2 billion) and Portugal (€1.1 billion).

Discussions at the conference will also focus on other EU financing instruments, such as the Private Finance for Energy Efficiency (PF4EE). In Spain, the PF4EE risk sharing facility has enabled a €50 million European Investment Bank loan, which will finance energy efficiency investments in hotels through Banco Santander. Moreover, the conference will cover initiatives to finance the energy efficient renovation of buildings in the Iberian Peninsula, such as the PAREER-CRECE programme, and energy efficiency in industry.