Clinton Unveiling 5 Billion Green Makeover

Clinton Unveiling 5 Billion Green Makeover



May 2007 -   Former President Bill Clinton 
today announced the creation of a $5 billion global effort to fight global 
warming by retrofitting existing buildings with more energy efficient 
products, thereby reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. 
A project of the Clinton Climate Initiative, the program brings together 
four of the world's largest energy service companies, five of the world's 
largest banks, and 15 of the world's largest cities to reduce energy 
consumption in existing buildings. 
President Clinton announced the Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit 
Program at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit now underway in New York. 
Mayors from across the United States and around the world are at the 
summit to strategize on climate change issues. 

Former President Bill Clinton has created the first global program to 
reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing buildings. 
"Climate change is a global problem that requires local action," said 
Clinton. "The businesses, banks and cities partnering with my foundation 
are addressing the issue of global warming because it's the right thing to 
do, but also because it's good for their bottom line." 
"They're going to save money, make money, create jobs and have a 
tremendous collective impact on climate change all at once," he said. 
Urban areas are responsible for approximately 75 percent of all energy use 
and greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Buildings account for nearly 40 
percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and in older cities such as 
New York and London this figure is much higher. 
"Mayors are responsible for coming up with pragmatic solutions and 
implementing them effectively – and this program will allow us to do 
that," said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "We've laid out an 
ambitious agenda to reduce our carbon emissions, 80 percent of which come 
from buildings, while being economically competitive and continuing to 
grow." 

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, flanked by mayors from around the 
world, addresses the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit. 
A number of progressive cities have already enacted green building codes 
and standards that reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in new 
buildings. 
This will be the first large scale, global program that will address the 
larger problem of energy use in existing buildings. which are responsible 
for almost all greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. 
The Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program will provide both cities 
and their private building owners with access to the necessary funds to 
retrofit existing buildings with more energy efficient products, which is 
exptected to produce energy savings of between 20 and 50 percent.
  Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Inc, Siemens and Trane will conduct energy 
  audits, perform building retrofits, and guarantee the energy savings of 
  the retrofit projects. 


  ABN AMRO, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and UBS have committed to 
  arrange $1 billion each to finance cities and private building owners to 
  undertake these retrofits at no net cost, doubling the global market for 
  energy retrofit in buildings. 


  These banks will work alongside energy efficiency finance specialist 
  Hannon Armstrong and CCI to develop effective mechanisms to deploy this 
  capital globally. Cities and building owners will pay back the loans 
  plus interest with the energy savings generated by the reduced energy 
  costs thanks to the building retrofits. 


  An initial group of 15 of the world's largest cities has agreed to 
  participate in the retrofit program, and offer their municipal buildings 
  for the first round of energy retrofits - Bangkok, Berlin, Chicago, 
  Houston, Johannesburg, Karachi, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, New 
  York, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo, and Toronto.
As part of the Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program, cities have 
agreed to develop a program to make their municipal buildings more energy 
efficient and provide incentives for private building owners to retrofit 
their buildings with energy saving technologies. 
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Chair of the C40, said he is encouraged 
by this first outcome of the C40's partnership with the Clinton Climate 
Initiative. 
New York is one of the first 15 cities to enter the Energy Efficiency 
Building Retrofit Program. 
"Fifteen cities have already signed up to take advantage of this 
initiative and I am confident many more will follow," the London mayor 
said. "National governments still struggle to agree a way forward on 
global warming, but cities, which are responsible for around three 
quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions, are today demonstrating the 
leadership and decisive action necessary to prevent catastrophic climate 
change." 
Participation in the retrofit program will be open to local banks and 
companies, who will be invited to contribute to the funding pool and to 
expand the list of green products used in retrofits. 
The retrofit program will be consistent with, and work within, city 
procurement and tendering rules. 
The U.S. Green Building Council and the American Society of Heating, 
Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers have agreed to help 
coordinate training programs in participating cities.    

       
      

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